ERC junks PSALM bid for IPP contracts’ confidentiality
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has junked the petition of state-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) to keep several documents confidential.
“The motion of the PSALM to declare the seven eligible independent power producer (IPP) contracts as confidential is hereby denied for lack of merit,” ERC said in a decision dated June 26.
The plea is in line with the ongoing public hearings regarding PSALM’s latest universal charge filing to recover P139 billion in stranded debts and contract costs.
PSALM wants to charge consumers P0.03 per kilowatt-hour (kwh) and P4.88 per kwh to collect funds for stranded debts and contract costs, respectively.
In its plea for confidentiality, PSALM said seven eligible IPP are primary sources in the determination of the floor price of the assets/rights for bidding.
“The terms and conditions of the said contracts and the schedules are used for pricing the energy output when trading in the supply market,” PSALM said.
“It is not difficult to extract from these documents the information necessary to anticipate the economic and corporate strategy of the winning bidders, exposing them to unfair competition,” it added.
Specifically, the state-run firm sought the ERC’s approval to retain the confidentiality of these IPP contracts: the energy conversion agreements (ECA) for the Sual and Pagbilao coal-fired power plants; the build, operate and transfer (BOT) agreement in Bauang and Subic Enron; the electricity power supply agreements ( PSA) for Benguet minihydropower projects and Leyte B; and the operation, maintenance and repair agreement for Limay A and B.
“The possibility that the information contained in these documents will be used by the intervenors for other purposes should not be taken lightly,” PSALM said.
However, Manila Electric Co., the country’s largest power distributor, filed its opposition to PSALM’s request last March.
Under the rules, the party seeking to keep delicate information undisclosed has the burden of proof.
The ERC said that when PSALM filed the petition in March, the several ECA, BOT and PSA of several contracts were already available to the Commission on a non-confidential basis.
“The said IPP contracts can be made available to intervenors and should not be treated as confidential,” the ERC said.
Furthermore, the seven IPP contracts were subject and part of PSALM’s previous petition in 2010 for the recovery of National Power Corp.’s (Napocor) stranded contact costs for the Luzon grid.
In 2010, PSALM sought for ERC approval to keep the confidentiality of its financials that includes its loan documents.
In June 2011, ERC junked the bid of consumer group National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms Inc. to open Napocor’s books on asset valuation.
ERC is the state-owned regulator of the power sector while PSALM is the state agency created by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 to privatize government power assets as well as manage power plants and debts of Napocor. It buys the fuel requirements of state-owned power plants.
After the privatization of its power facilities, Napocor would be left with the function of operating the power generation in off-grid areas and those power plants that will not be sold by PSALM.