Group joins call for EPIRA law overhaul

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD CITY – Power Watch Negros, along with other consumer advocacy groups, has joined the call for the overhaul of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act or EPIRA law (Republic Act 9136).

Power Watch-Negros Secretary-General Wennie Sancho said their position is in reaction to the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., where he called for amendments to the law.

Sancho stressed that EPIRA was supposed to achieve two things: reduce power costs and ensure an efficient power supply. It was intended to create true competition and thus deregulation to lower rates.

However, after more than twenty years since its implementation in 2001, EPIRA has not effectively solved the problems besetting the power industry, Sancho lamented.

He added that without efficient regulators, strict accountability mechanisms for inefficiency and abusive behaviors, and strong limitations on concentration and cross-ownership, it is impossible for EPIRA to bring about greater efficiency and better services for consumers.

“EPIRA is clearly a failed policy that needs to be overhauled,” he stressed.

Sancho added, “It is time to conduct a comprehensive assessment of its failure to meet the promised objectives.”

He further said that amendments should propose solutions to end the yearly power outages and the many ailments of the power industry.

The public needs the protection of an alert regulator, Sancho said.

He also pointed out that the ERC has an obligation to pursue its mandate to ensure that providers of power are viable and that consumers are charged fair and reasonable rates.

A significant amendment to EPIRA is to prohibit passing on the cost of system loss to consumers, Sancho said.

“Consumers should only pay for what they receive. In purchasing other products, consumers only pay for what they receive,” he pointed out.

Sancho lamented that in paying for electricity, consumers are charged even for electricity lost, whether through its physical delivery or through pilferage.

He said that distribution utilities should shoulder the cost of system loss.

“ERC and DOE should ensure that power producers are penalized with fines and revocation of certificates for compliance and/or endorsement for their protracted and unjustified outages,” Sancho added.

He further said it is imperative that erring generation companies are slapped with appropriate sanctions for gross incompetence in failing to provide a crucial service in the middle of a power crisis.

In aid of legislation, Congress should amend EPIRA to implement reforms related to the improvement in the management of electric communication lines to address issues on safety, as well as the ban on cross-ownership of distribution utilities and power generation plants, Sancho said.

He added that ERC should retire unreliable and obsolete coal plants that have been experiencing recurring outages on an annual basis.

“As power plants get older, even with planned maintenance periods afforded to them, they cannot be as efficient as they were before,” Sancho stressed.