EEI power unit to go into retail electricity market

MANILA, Philippines — The power retail arm under Yuchengco-led construction firm, EEI Corp., is eyeing to further penetrate the retail electricity market after having signed power supply deals within six months of operation.

EEI Energy Solutions Corp. said it would leverage the business relationship of its parent firm EEI to reach the untapped segments of the Visayas region, as well as north and south Luzon in the retail electricity market.

The company also expects other facilities in the commercial and industrial market to re-open or at least regain normal electricity consumption as the Philippine economy begins to bounce back, EEI general manager Salvador Salire Jr. said.

“We are ramping up efforts to further penetrate the retail market and with the synergistic efforts within the EEI Group and the entire [Yuchengco Group of Companies]. It will just be a matter of time for EEI Energy to carve its place in the retail energy space as one of the most innovative retail electricity suppliers in the country and be able to deliver quality service to our customers,” he said.

Salire said the increases in capacity of renewable energy (RE) produced by its parent company EEI Power Corp. would meet rising demand for retail electricity, as contestability threshold is expected to be lowered to 100 kilowatts (kW) in the coming years.

He was referring to the Retail Competition and Open Access, a provision under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) that allows contestable customers (CCs) or those whose peak demand is within the threshold level of contestability to freely choose their electricity supplier.

Effective Feb. 26, customers with 500 kW demand were allowed to transact with retail electricity suppliers (RES) directly on a voluntary basis.

After the 500-kW threshold, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) issued a draft resolution proposing that this would be followed by reduction to 100 kW on Jan. 26, 2022, which will also mark the start of retail aggregation.

EEI Energy recently inked retail electricity supply deals with Centro Mall and the Limcoma Multi-purpose Cooperative to provide 500 kilowatts (kw) of electricity supply each.

Centro Mall is one of the prominent shopping malls in Laguna, while Limcoma is the first ISO 9001:2001 certified feed mill cooperative in the Philippines.

“EEI Energy is honored to have been chosen to be the retail electricity supplier of Centro Mall and Limcoma…among all the other players in the industry. This is a testament to the dependability and reliability that EEI is known for and the value-added services that we can make available to our customers considering the diverse business interest of our group,” EEI Energy president Cris Noel Torres said.

Centro Mall and Limcoma Corp. are among the first accounts closed by EEI Energy within just six months into its operation, following the account with the local counterpart of a leading Southeast Asian aquaculture manufacturer, which commenced last May.

To date, EEI Energy’s total contracted capacity is 3.5 megawatts. It acquired its RES license from the ERC only in February.

“These accounts will definitely be the first of many customers we will serve with our unique offerings. While we look forward to a lasting and sustainable business relationship with our customers, we are aggressively working on providing the same, if not more, level of service to other contestable customers across the Luzon and Visayas market,” EEI Energy operations manager Valia Quinajon said.