Anticipation high on approval of Meralco PSAs this week
Anticipation is now high on probable approval of some power supply agreements (PSAs) of Manila Electric Company (Meralco) given the “decision timeline” that the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) had set off during a Congressional hearing on the matter.
The ERC had given threemonth timeframe, that will supposedly lapse today, October 4, on when it can complete the final evaluation processes of the PSAs and for the regulatory body to render ruling on these pending cases.
When asked on their expectation, Meralco President Oscar S. Reyes indicated that they are “hopeful” that their pending PSA applications will finally hurdle the labyrinth of regulatory approval.
About three to four (3-4) of the seven (7) PSAs of Meralco had already gone through public hearings, but the mounting opposition of some parties, albeit delayed, had hobbled regulatory action on the pending cases.
Primarily, these are for the 1,200-megawatt Atimonan and 600MW Subic coal-fired power projects, as well as Meralco PowerGen’s joint venture with the Semirara Mining and Power Corporation of the Consunji group on a 700MW coal-fired power venture in Batangas.
The ERC just previously resolved that while it will no longer entertain the “latecomer-opposing parties” to be intervenors in the case, their respective “opposition to the specified cases” can still be entertained in writing.
ERC Officer-in-Charge Alfredo J. Non has qualified though that the Meralco PSAs have not been calendared yet for discussion this week.
“We did not have a meeting last week and maybe one is scheduled this week if we have a quorum. There’s no agenda prepared yet,” he said, adding that there are only three of them at the ERC this time because ERC Commissioner Geronimo D. Sta. Ana is on medical leave.
Non last week has assured the public that the Meralco PSA applications “are still being evaluated to ensure that only just and reasonable costs shall be included in the electric bill.”
He added that “we are carefully scrutinizing each of the cost components in the Meralco PSA applications that is why the final approval of these applications have been taking some time.”