Electricity

Readers may recall that right before last year’s elections, Mindanao was hit by 12-hour daily brownouts, although in light of the coming political exercise, the national media paid scant heed to the plight of Mindanaoans.

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MANILA, Philippines – Power generation companies and distribution utilities (DUs) are now required to list on the local stock market as the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has approved the rules on the public offering of at least 15 percent of their shares to the public.

(Second of two parts. Part 1 appeared last Thursday.) WHAT does the government have to show us after a decade of power industry privatization under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act or EPIRA? Power rates have increased all over the country. More rate hikes loom for consumers from various recovery schemes legitimized under the law.…

A CRITIC of the 10-year-old Electric Power Reform Act said Tuesday that law had failed to lower electricity rates and instead resulted in higher power bills.

MANILA, Philippines — The dilemma of renewable energy (RE) is how it can get out of the cradle and leaps into the playground when it comes to cost-competitiveness; and for that, the solution being propounded by the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF) would be to start with cheaper technologies in the installation targets.

Our latest episode on the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) on my Destiny Cable Global News Network show entitled, “The curse of Epira,” had as guests, power consumer advocate Butch Junia and Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) former vice chairman Wilson Fortaleza, who jointly declared the “jury in,” finding the 10-year-old power law a…

MANILA, Philippines – The Senate committees on energy and public services have recommended the extension of the lifeline rate privilege given to low-income users of electricity by another 10 years.

IT will be ten years to the day by next week when Republic Act No. 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001 was enacted into law. Its passage was railroaded through Congress amidst a very strong lobby from the creditors of the National Power Corporation (NPC) led by the Asian Development…

MANILA, Philippines – A party-list lawmaker cried foul over the power tariff hike proposal of the Visayan Electric Company (VECO), while criticizing the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for not providing more public hearings in the affected power consumer in Cebu City.

MANILA, Philippines – Mindanao needs coal-fired power plants to ensure the sustainable supply of power in the island group, an industry executive said.

MANILA, Philippines – State-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) reported on Friday that it has settled about $18 billion worth of National Power Corp. (Napocor) debts since 2001.

EPIRA FAILURE: Next month is the 10th anniversary of the Electric Power Industry Restructuring Act (EPIRA) of 2001 that promised much cheaper and more reliable electricity.

MANILA, Philippines –  The cost of electricity in the country, already the second highest in Asia next to Singapore, will go up further, energy officials told the House committee on energy yesterday.

CEBU, Philippines – The Trade Union Congress Party, a Visayas-based partylist group filed a petition with the Energy Regulatory Commission to contest the proposed tariff hike filed by the Visayan Electric Company.

STATE-RUN National Power Corp. on Thursday sought help from the Joint Congressional Power Commission for P15 billion in loans from private banks to finance its operations and missionary electrification and renewable energy projects.

Can anyone help me make heads or tails of statements made two weeks ago by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. president and chief executive officer? Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. said that when the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) was enacted in 2001, state-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor)’s accumulated financial obligations stood…

HIGH power costs continue to deter potential investments in semiconductor and electronics, according to industry executives.

Business groups yesterday demanded the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to speed up the implementing guidelines for the open access scheme on electricity that will allow major power users to choose where to get their supply, saying that the start of the scheme is long overdue.

An advocacy group batted yesterday for the immediate passage of two Senate bills which could effectively cut electricity cost to the end-users by as much as P2 per kilowatthour.

The Philippines is known for having the most expensive electricity in Asia, second only to Japan. Yet our per capita consumption of electricity is less than a fifth of Japan’s, and our per capita income much lower—a mere 4.4 percent.

A conference of vital importance to Filipino households and the entire economy was held January 22 to 25 in San Mateo, Rizal, on the theme “Unmasking the true costs of electricity in the Philippines.” Organized by consumer groups under the umbrellas of the Freedom from Debt Coalition and the Foundation for a Sustainable Society Inc.,…

June 2011 marks the tenth year of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act or Epira. This Asian Development Bank-sponsored project had two categorical promises to the Filipino consumers—reliability of power supply and lower electricity rates.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines, which ranks among the most corrupt countries, also holds the unenviable record of having the highest residential power rates not only in Asia but in the entire world.

Mindanao may suffer from power outages should some power facilities in the region break down, the Energy Department said Sunday.

AS MANY AS 29 electricity cooperatives could be taken over by the government due to overdue obligations or risk being cut off from their power sources, officials of the National Electrification Administration (NEA) and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) have warned.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines has gained a new record, that of having the most expensive electricity in the whole of Asia.

OFF-GRID utilities that source their electricity from state-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor) are appealing to President Benigno Aquino 3rd to address a power crisis in their service areas because of the government’s inability to secure their fuel requirements. In an open letter to the President, members of the Association of Isolated Electric Cooperatives Inc. (AIEC)…

MANILA, Philippines –  The House of Representatives will look into the real reason behind the high electricity rates in the country, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said yesterday.

THE Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a short-list of stopgap measures to help meet the country’s power requirements this year. Energy Undersecretary Josefina Patricia Asirit said Luzon, which is projected to suffer from insufficient generating capacity and demand growth, would draw excess power from the Visayas to help augment its electricity supply.