Lawmaker sees Palace ‘plot’ to take over underperforming power coops

WITH just a few more months before the 2022 national and local elections, a party-list lawmaker on Monday warned against Executive Order (EO) 156 that mandates the Department of Energy (DOE) to identify unviable, unserved, underserved and poorly served areas within the franchise areas of distribution utilities.

Under EO 156, House Deputy Minority leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate explained that the DOE must order all distribution utilities to submit a Comprehensive Electrification Master Plan for the total electrification of their respective franchise areas within 30 days.

Zarate noted the timing of EO 156 considering that election day is fast approaching and a change in the management of electric coops may affect the delivery of electricity during elections.

“This may be a guise to take over electric cooperatives like

what the administration tried to do with the Benguet Electric Cooperative [Beneco] in Baguio,” the lawmaker alleged.

Zarate also warned that typhoon Odette’s devastation might be used as reason to take over electric cooperatives.

“EO 156 may seem innocuous and even supposedly beneficial to far flung areas still in need of electricity but it may be just be a disguised scheme to take over and then sell to private power players the electric cooperatives especially with the devastation caused by Odette,” said Zarate.

The EO said the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 empowers the DOE to ensure the reliability, quality and security of the supply of electric power, and facilitate and encourage reforms in the structure and operations of distribution utilities for greater and lower costs.

“While the electrification of the entire country is one of the primary concerns of the government, certain distribution utilities, as well as ailing electric cooperatives, continue to underperform, and thus hamper government efforts for the countr y’s total electrification,” the EO added.

Under the EO, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) shall “promulgate rules in computing rates that allow full cost recovery for the facilities built by microgrids, [distributed energy resources], and other alternative electric service providers.”

The ERC is also responsible for the imposition of fines and penalties against non-compliant distribution utilities and recommend the revocation of their franchises to Congress.

The National Electrification Administration, on the other hand, must “coordinate with the DOE and extend the necessary assistance to enhance distribution development.”

Funds for the implementation of the executive order will be sourced from the budgets of the concerned agencies.