IN THE NEWS: Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares, one of the petitioners, told the high court that that unprecedented rate increase was brought about not by an actual substantial increase in the cost of producing electricity, but because generation companies (GenCos) exploited the highly suspect simultaneous unscheduled and scheduled shutdown to make staggeringly high bids in the spot market called WESM. Respondent ERC committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack of jurisdiction when it hastily approved without a hearing and investigation, the P4.15 rate hike imposed by respondents Meralco and GenCos despite three highly irregular or unprecedented events which should have stayed its hands of approval as market abuse regulator, Colmenares said. ... Colmenares also hit respondents argument that unless automatically passed through, the GenCos will lose substantial amount which may even greatly impact energy supply. The substantial increase of P4.15 in December on top of the already unjust 1.07 increase in November, was not brought about by a substantial increase in production cost but was mainly brought about by the very high bids in the WESM by Meralco and GenCos intending to make a killing at the expense of the people.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 15:40:21 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015