ERC to implement CSP in phases — Monsada

MANILA — Department of Energy (DOE) Officer-in-Charge Secretary Zenaida Monsada stressed on Wednesday that the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) will implement the Competitive Selection Process (CSP) on a phase basis — and not completely right away.

“Basically (it’s) a policy directive, the implementor is ERC. The allowable middle ground is mandatory, but there was no said effective (date).

It’s up to ERC when to make it mandatory…

A lot of the (policies) will be implemented in phases,” Monsada said Wednesday at the sidelines of the National Geothermal Association of the Philippines (NGAP) Conference held at the Marco Polo Hotel in Pasig City.

Under the CSP, distribution utilities or electric cooperatives are no longer allowed to enter into bilateral negotiations, which forces them to contract power through trading at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) or the aggregation of power demand.

She said ERC was already discussing the implementation timeline for the policies in CSP, while the guidelines would likely be completed this year.

However, Monsada noted it will still depend on the result of consultations conducted by the ERC, which also scheduled the submission for comments on the policy until the end of the month.

She also said some generation companies were glad with the CSP circular.

Monsada further stressed the policy should be pushed, since the tight power supply situation was only temporary and would likely end with the many generation companies building power plants.

Meanwhile, she said some electric cooperatives might not fully list its full capacity under CSP yet, as they are awaiting the guidelines from the ERC.