EPIRA ‘WORKING WELL’ FOR CONSUMERS

Electric Power Industry Reform Act was enacted on June 8, 2001 under the term of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The law meant to provide a framework for restructuring the Philippine electric power industry.

While high power rates continue to weigh down the country’s global competitiveness, the implementation of Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) has facilitated reforms in the power sector, said a top official of a listed power firm.

AboitizPower president and chief operations officer Antonio Moraza said the landmark law has proven itself to be working well for consumers and power players in terms of bringing in investments, encouraging competition and lowering power rates.

“Epira has worked because there are so many players building power plants resulting to an oversupply and there is tough competition for services and prices. It has given the customers the power to choose,” said Moraza, in a statement.

Good for consumers

The official added that as Cebu and the Visayas start their shift to Retail Competition and Open Access (RCOA), customers will emerge as winners. RCOA is one of the biggest features of the Epira Law.

Under RCOA, power customers consuming an average of one megawatt and up can now voluntarily look for their own retail electricity suppliers (RES) and customize their contracts according to dispatch, technology or power plant.

By June this year, the threshold is expected to drop to 750 kilowatts per hour, allowing more establishments to benefit from com- petition among power producers.

According to Wilfredo Rodolfo III, assistant vice president for branding and corporate communication at AboitizPower, this is a development consumers should look forward to, as this will pave the way for cheaper rates and accessible power.

He said that many of Cebu’s big companies like resorts and malls have already signed up for RES.

“This is where the battle is now in Cebu and Visayas,” he said, adding that with all the developments in the power sector, power players are now scrambling to offer attractive prices and services to attract consumers.

More choices

Under the RCOA, customers that choose to use renewable energy can also look for renewable power plants, while large consumers, like manufacturing plants that need reliability and dependability, can choose suppliers with solid portfolio of baseload, intermediate and peaking power plants.

“Customers must not entirely base their decision on the price but the track record of the supplier, the suppliers’ portfolio of power plants and the services the supplier will provide,” said Moraza.

AboitizPower, through its RES subsidiaries Aboitiz Energy Solutions, Advent Energy and Prism Energy, boasts of its wide portfolio of power plants fueled by renewable sources like geothermal, large hydro, run-of-river hydro, solar and soon biomass. The company also utilizes thermal plants fueled by coal and oil.

As of 2016, AboitizPower and its partners have a net sellable capacity of 3,955 MW from close to 50 power plants in the country. At present, the shift to their power generator of choice is still voluntary among RCOA customers in Luzon and Visayas.

The Epira or Republic Act 9136 was signed by then president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo into law last June 8, 2001, after seven years of public hearings, deliberations and versions filed in Congress.