Gov’t urged to expand Open Access in power sector

MANILA, Philippines - Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp., a unit of the Phinma Group, is urging the government to expand the so-called Open Access regime in the power to sector to include electricity users with a monthly consumption of 750 kilowatt-hours.

This would allow office buildings and vertical developments such as condominiums to get competitive rates, said Trans-Asia president Francisco Viray.

“It could include the 750 kwh users,” Viray said.

While this is the plan after two years, he said the government can already accelerate the timetable and implement this now.

Essentially, the open-access regime or the Retail Competition and Open Access (RCOA) allows businesses to be able to decide for themselves which provider is in the best position to supply its needs.

These businesses are the contestable customers or those with electricity demand of at least one-megawatt a month.

However, one-megawatt customers are usually only the big ones such as malls, plants and other giant consumers.

Viray said the open-access regime would be good for the industry but it could be better if more consumers can be included in the new landscape.

He pointed out that many buildings are also big consumers but fall below the one-MW threshold. Instead, many of these office buildings, call centers and condominiums consume 750 kwh.

Allowing users with a consumption of 750 kwh to choose to their own provider would make the industry even more competitive and could translate to competitive rates, he said.

So far, only 239 out of 909 applicants have received approval to participate in the new regime.

In June, the Department of Energy and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), together with the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC), launched the commercial operations and integration of the so-called RCOA into the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) or the country’s electricity trading floor.

The Energy department has already issued a department circular mandating the use of retail market manuals for the implementation of a new regime in the power sector.