Retail Customers Tearing Down Monopoly In Power Industry – ERC

As the consumers who can already exercise their “power of choice” or those contracting directly their electricity service from preferred suppliers already corner a significant pie of roughly 5,000 megawatts (MW) in the country’s electricity demand, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) tagged such development as business evolution out to shatter long-reigning monopoly in the power sector.

- Myrna M. Velasco

“This is a positive indication which signifies that competition in the CREM (Competitive Retail Electricity Market) is gaining ground and slowly breaking the monopoly in the supply of electricity by allowing more entities to act as supplier,” the industry regulator stressed.

Based on its report, the ERC stipulated “the total demand of all contestable customers as of the second quarter of 2020 is recorded at 4,977.31 MW.” Pricing wise, contestable customers have likewise been sourcing at dwindling tariff trends from ₱4.12 per kilowatt hour (kWh) in April; down to ₱3.97 per kWh in May; then ₱3.95 per kWh in June.

Contestable customers are those end-users sourcing their supply directly from power generators or retail suppliers as sanctioned by the Retail Competition and Open Access (RCOA) policy of the restructured power industry.