Senate revives review of EPIRA

MANILA, Philippines - Efforts to amend the 16-year-old Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) are being revived in the Senate, with lawmakers focusing on anti-competitive provisions that leave households and key industries burdened with high power rates.        

The Senate committee on energy, chaired by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, started last week hearings on the EPIRA, with the goal of reducing power rates and promoting transparency and competition in the industry.        

Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito, whose Senate Bill 156 seeking to amend the EPIRA was tackled during the hearing, lamented the law has fallen short in delivering on its promise to provide reliable, secure and affordable sources of energy. 

Ejercito added even the law’s goal to encourage competition among power players had fallen short.

He said one of the provisions that urgently needs amendment is Section 45, which deals with cross ownership, market power abuse and anti-competitive behavior.

The provision only prohibits ownership of a power generation company in a transmission company, and vice versa.

“Consequently, most of the generation companies also venture into power transmission. In effect, there is no true competition within the energy industry, since they easily manipulate the price of electricity,” Ejercito pointed out.

“With this system, privatization and monopoly of the sector happened, but the lowering of the cost of electricity never happened. This is why I am proposing an additional amendment for generation companies to be prohibited to go into distribution, and vice versa, to level the playing field in the sector,” he added. 

Ejercito said such an “unfortunate” scenario “should open our minds” to tap other reliable and cheaper sources of energy, including nuclear.

“If we really want our economy to take off and reach its full potential, we should find solutions to bring down the cost of electricity. Right now the cheapest source of energy is nuclear. We should consider adding the combination of renewable energy plus nuclear in our current power mix,” he said.

Gatchalian said the Senate is bent on reforming the governance and transparency structure of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), the full implementation of the Retail Competition and Open Access scheme and improving the competition environment in the power sector.

Gatchalian said power sector reform is one of the priorities of the Duterte administration.