AboitizPower aims to boost contracted capacity to contestable customers

ABOITIZ Power Corp. is targeting to increase its contracted capacity to contestable customers by at least 100 megawatts (MW) this year as it looks to target electricity users with consumption of at least 750 kilowatts, its president said.

“You talk to them, it’s voluntary naman ’di ba. If they’re interested, then you proceed,” AboitizPower President Antonio R. Moraza told reporters on Monday.

He said the company must have contracted last year between 300 MW and 400 MW of its 3,000 MW sellable capacity to contestable customers, or those that have the power to choose where to buy their electricity.

“We’re hoping to increase that by at least a hundred [megawatts] this year again,” he added. “I’d say 400-450 [MW], around that area.”

Mr. Moraza earlier told stockholders of the company that AboitizPower is growing its open access footprint, among other plans this year, which includes the sale of the 8.8-MW biomass power plant in Batangas under its unit Aseagas Corp. for which it took a hit of P3.7 billion.

Under existing rules, consumers whose power usage reached a monthly average of at least 1 MW are required to buy their electricity from retail electricity suppliers (RES).

That threshold was meant to be lowered to 750-kilowatts ( kW) but the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the lowering of the threshold.

This was after a number of entities, including educational institutions, questioned the legality of some of the provisions under the rules issued by the Department of Energy (DoE) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

Among others, they contested the mandatory nature of the rules. The TRO also put on hold the ERC’s mandate to issue licenses to the retail electricity suppliers.

The DoE has since issued new rules that made the RES contracting “voluntary” instead of mandatory. It has also directed the ERC to issue guidelines on the licenses of the suppliers.

Mr. Moraza said competition among suppliers to corner a bigger share of the 1- MW customers has become stiffer as contracts start to expire. Those consuming at least 750-kW are also hesitant to buy electricity from retail suppliers because the Supreme Court has yet to rule on the legality of lowering the threshold.

“It’s becoming very competitive. Everybody wants to do the same thing,” he said.

However, Mr. Moraza said that the company would go ahead and target the 750- kW market segment despite the TRO.

Luis Miguel O. Aboitiz, the company’s executive vice-president and chief operating officer of the corporate business group, said in an interview that AboitizPower holds about a quarter of the “open access” market.

“We have four RES’s. Together they have a quarter of the market… Three licenses expired,” he said, adding that their customers could be transferred to the one with a valid license.

As of the fourth quarter of last year, 78 contestable customers are in the 750-kW to 999-kW contestability threshold, while 862 customers are in the 1 MW and above level.

Majority or 856 registered customers are in Luzon and the remaining 84 are in the Visayas. Of these customers, 462 registrants are engaged in industrial activities, while 478 are into commercial ventures.

The total registrants are about 59% of the 1,598 electricity endusers that were already issued a certificate of contestability by the ERC, the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) said in a report. PEMC is the repository of data on the retail market.