ERC urges Transco to set the record straight
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) issued a stern warning to the National Transmission Corporation (TransCo) to just stick to the facts, set the record straight and ventilate their concerns in the proper forum.
The warning was made in the light of a press statement from Mr. Jules Alcantara of TransCo stating that it will go on with its capital projects even if the ERC has not yet decided on its applications. In making said statement, Mr. Alcantara implied that ERC’s failure to decide its capital projects application is a cause of delay for implementing urgent projects.
TransCo has 37 capital projects for ERC approval. These projects were
started by TransCo without the ERC’s approval as required by the
Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA). “These projects have
implications on the rates of end-consumers. The ERC is merely doing
its job of ensuring that the projects will not be prejudicial to stakeholders
of the electric power industry. The ERC is certain that this is also
a concern shared by TransCo,” the ERC chief explained.
“The ERC has not issued any Order to stop construction of TransCo’s
projects but has instead imposed a PhP9.4 million penalty for not seeking
prior ERC approval as required by the EPIRA,” ERC Chairman Albano
stressed.
“The
ERC believes that such observations, along with many others that TransCo
had been making in the past few weeks should instead be ventilated in
the on-going hearings on the applications of TransCo for a more constructive
resolution of its concerns. We do not in any way appreciate that they
go to the media first at the risk of putting ERC in a bad light, Chairman
Albano further said.
“In the course of public hearings and evaluation, the ERC sees
to it that consumer interests are protected by ensuring that the technical
specifications and size of TransCo’s projects are not in excess
of what is needed now and in the immediate future and that the award
of a project to a contractor was conducted under a fair, transparent,
competitive bidding process and that the construction implementation
schedules observed cost-effective use of equipment and resources,”
the chief regulator pointed out.
Consumers will benefit from the ERC’s “optimization” process that is designed to disallow contract items found to be in excess or too early for the needs of the present and the immediate future. The items disallowed by the the ERC will not form part of the rates to be charged to TransCo customers.
TransCo should have anticipated that there are pre-requisites in undertaking
capital projects, and thus, should not accuse the ERC of being a potential
cause of delay in the projects that it wants to implement. Again, the
ERC has not issued any Order to prevent TransCo from proceeding with
its capital projects. It only asks TransCo to comply with the requirements
set by law and to pay the penalties borne out of its violation,”
Chairman Albano concluded.