RDC committee wants to put a stop to rising cost of power

FOR the second time this year, the Regional Development Council (RDC) 7 executive committee (execom) met and aired its continuing dissatisfaction with the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) scheme.

The concept of the Wesm is to encourage competition by allowing power consumers to choose their own supplier, thereby creating competition that will greatly reduce power rates all over the country.

But this has not happened, said Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, RDC 7 execom presiding
officer.

“We want to come up with an RDC resolution and discuss with technical people the rising cost of power,” Rama told reporters yesterday.

Suspension of WESM

Bohol Gov. Edgar Chatto called for the suspension of the WESM during the group’s meeting last July. He said Bohol has the highest power rate in the region.

The execom asked the Philippine Electric Market Corp. (PEMC), which manages the WESM, to explain the situation.

Chrysanthus Heruela of PEMC said a base price is provided for under the contract with WESM.

Rama said they want the Energy Regulatory Commission to intervene but apparently the commission has its own problem. The mayor, though, didn’t elaborate.

Rama said maybe things will change with Leyte Gov. Jericho Petilla replacing Rene Almendras as the Department of Energy secretary.

Rama said he hopes Petilla will help address the problem of rising power costs in
Region 7.

He said he’d worked with Petilla before. Petilla was the RDC 8 chairman, while Rama sits as RDCommittee (RDCom) Visayas chairman. (The RDCom consists of the chairmen of the RDCs in the Visayas.)

The mayor will call for another meeting involving the RDC 7 execom, power cooperatives and the private sector to discuss the matter.