New ERC chairman sees rate review backlog cleared within four years

THE incoming chairman of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) committed to clearing the backlog of rate reset applications within four years by streamlining the review process.

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“Within four years, we will complete the rate reset of all private distribution utilities under the performance-based regulation,” ERC Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer Francis Saturnino C. Juan said during the turnover ceremony on Thursday.

Mr. Juan hopes to streamline the rate reset process by revising the rules for setting distribution wheeling rates.

Under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001, the ERC is tasked with establishing the method for setting transmission and distribution wheeling rates. The rates must be set in a way that allows the recovery of “just and reasonable costs and a reasonable return on rate base,” enabling the entity to operate viably.