ERC orders...

period when its contracted capacities from Masinloc and Calaca plants may not have been fully available because of their scheduled maintenance shutdown.

She similarly indicated that the re-pricing of the gas supply for its contracted First Gas facilities shall be reviewed given the widely-reported plummeting oil prices, which is the index in pricing Malampaya gas.

“All of the costs that would be recovered from the consumers will be re-assessed in the verification process because it’s there where we would see how they have remedied a situation,” she said.

The ERC official further noted that under the rules, there is a prescribed outage allowance for power plants wherein the costs could still be factored in into the rates being reflected in the bills.

“The policy is if the outage is within the allowable outage period, then that’s perfectly okay. However, if it’s already outside the allowable outages, that is the point when they have to determine what will be the basis of the charges,” Digal said.

She emphasized though that the mandate for distribution utilities is to source replacement power always at the “least cost.”

It has to be culled that prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) had been down by R2.21 per kWh in January supply month. However, Meralco’s supply procurement from the spot market for the period was just at marginal 6.10 percent.