House bill seeks to ban cross-ownership in power industry
May 2, 2021 | 7:13 pm
HOUSE LEGISLATORS have filed a bill that will ban cross-ownership in the power sector to deter monopolies and anti-competitive behavior in the energy industry.
In a statement Sunday, Bayan Muna party-list lawmakers said they filed House Bill 9260, which regulates cross-ownership between distribution utilities (DUs) and power generation companies (gencos).
“This amendment to ban cross-ownership between DUs and gencos is now becoming a must (while) the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) is not yet fully repealed,” Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani T. Zarate said in the statement.
EPIRA allows distribution utilities to own generation companies. In the bill filed April 27 and provided to reporters Sunday, Bayan Muna said cross-ownership results in conflicts of interest, with distribution utilities preferring to source power from affiliated companies.
BusinessWorld
April 28, 2021 | 12:08 am
Reporter
PRIVATELY owned National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said on Tuesday that it had not fully entered into a âfirmâ contract to buy reserve power, leaving the Energy department hanging after its call days earlier for such ancillary services to be fully contracted ahead of the summer months.
Even though the grid system operator wanted to contract on a firm basis, the supply was not there, said Ronald Dylan P. Concepcion, NGCP special counsel for legal and regulatory affairs, during the virtual hearing called by the Joint Congressional Energy Commission.
âA reserve can only be procured if there is sufficient supply of power. If there is no supply provided by generation companies, there is no reserve or there is no ancillary services to be procured,â Mr. Concepcion said.
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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 27) The Department of Energy is not seeing demand-driven energy shortage in the summer season but said the country needs power reserves to address unplanned outages.
During the hearing of the Joint Congressional Energy Commission on Tuesday, lawmakers repeatedly asked officials if there would be brownouts or blackouts from April to June. Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, said there should be unimpeded power supply especially for the cold storage facilities of COVID-19 vaccines.
Sa ngayon po wala tayong nakikitang high risk na magkakaroon tayo ng shortage (As of now, we are not seeing high risks for shortage), Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said.