Cusi wants power retailers to submit demand estimates

Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi wants power distributors to submit their demand projections to ensure future security of supply following the Supreme Court ruling that directed them to conduct a competitive selection process, or public bidding, in their electricity purchases.

“We are also asking all DUs in the country to submit annual supply demand projections for the next three years, and from 2023 to 2030 to ensure that they have sufficient supplemental power supply levels to meet their respective franchise obligations in the years to come,” Cusi said in a statement on Friday.

The Department of Energy earlier welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court, which held that “all Power Supply Agreement applications submitted by Distribution Utilities to the Energy Regulatory Commission on or after 30 June 2015 shall comply with the Competitive Selection Process… ”

”We will be calling for immediate consultative meetings with Meralco (Manila Electric Co.), their project partners and those smaller contracts that have been affected by the SC ruling,” the energy chief said.

The ruling is seen to affect around 95 PSA. 

”The highest court of the land has unequivocally spoken. Thus, in adherence to the SC’s judgement, we call for the exigent conduct of CSP for the PSAs of DUs, which include electric cooperatives and private corporations like Meralco,” Cusi said.

He said power development in our country, especially in Luzon, had been at a standstill for three years. 

“We can no longer afford any further delay. We need to act now with extreme urgency to make up for the lost time,” Cusi said.

”It is the right of our people to receive the full benefits of the country’s liberalized electric power industry as envisioned by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act-a power sector marked by the deregulated and demonopolized generation and distribution of electricity, expected to yield the delivery of the best services at the least cost to consumers,” he said. “In consonance with the DoE’s mandate, we have been consistently formulating policies, programs, rules and regulations towards this end.”