Consumer group “Matuwid na Singil sa Kuryente Consumer Alliance” has filed a petition with the Energy Regulatory Commission to stop the creation of a Meralco cartel with five power generation companies whose questionable midnight negotiated power supply contracts could result in excessive charges amounting to P12 billion a year for 20 years.
In a press statement, MSK executive director Evelyn Viray Jallorina said cartelization of the power sector is specifically prohibited by the Epira Law and the Energy Regulatory Commission which has a clear mandate to investigate and prevent cartelization, abuse of market power, anti-competitive behavior and monopolization specially the power generation sector.
MSK identified the power generation groups under the Meralco-Meralco PowerGen cartel as Aboitiz, DM Consuji, Global Business Power, San Miguel, and EGAT of Thailand.
In its petition, MSK alleged that in addition to the 4,011mw of 20 year power supply contracts which Meralco signed, its chosen strategic partners already own and would own 10,575mw of power generating capacity in the country by 2021, resulting to a cartel with a total of 14,586mw of the country’s installed capacity and approximately corner 70% of the energy needs of the top three distribution utilities: Meralco, Visayan Electric, and Davao Light.