ERC mulls over 50-kilowatt power retail threshold
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is looking at further slashing the retail choice threshold to 50 kilowatts (kW) in 2027 to allow more Filipino consumers to pick their own electricity supplier.
ERC Chair and CEO Francis Saturnino Juan said the commission is currently assessing the traction in the competitive retail electricity market (CREM), especially after recently lowering the threshold to 100 kW from 500 kW.
Juan said regulators are creating a roadmap to guide retail electricity players.
A possible inclusion in that roadmap is the expansion of the retail electricity market to smaller-volume consumers.
“The phase in we’re looking at is lowering the threshold further to 50 kW until we reach the household level and everyone will have the right of choice after that,” Juan said.
“So we’re just trying to firm up the readiness of all stakeholders to be able to manage the switch or the migration of the captive customers to a contestable market,” he added.
Programs under CREM include the retail competition and open access (RCOA) and the retail aggregation program (RAP).
The RCOA allows participants that consume at least 100 kW a month to buy lower-priced electricity from retailers other than the existing suppliers in their area.
The RAP accommodates households and smaller consumers that share a common area to consolidate their demand to meet the threshold.
Juan is optimistic the commission, as well as industry players—particularly distribution utilities and electric cooperatives—could implement the 50-kW threshold in the following year, as the ERC speeds up the approval of capital expenditure projects.
Under a rate reset process, a regulated entity must submit to the ERC its spending and proposed projects over a period, usually five years, unless extended by the regulator. This will then be the basis of the rate that will be passed on to consumers.
“They would have their new rates, so they’d be able to update their metering facilities to be able to cater to the contestable market, including those that will belong to the lower threshold of 50 kilowatts,” Juan said.
