City readies recon motion on power rate increase

THE Iloilo City Government through the city legal office will soon file a motion for reconsideration to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) regarding the recently approved P692 million under recoveries sought by the Panay Energy Development Corp. (PEDC) in establishing and building its coal power plant in this city.

City legal officer Jose Junio Jacela said City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog ordered for the legal office to file the motion before the end of this month.

Mabilog, together with other local chief executives in Iloilo and Guimaras, are now in Canada for a study tour and learning exchange on watersheds and water resources. The study tour is sponsored by the Canadian Urban Institute (CUI).

Similarly, the motion for reconsideration will seek to defer the ERC approved implementation of about P0.32 hike per kilowatt-hour (kwh) to the prevailing generation charges distribution by Panay Electric Company as pass-on load to power consumers.

The under recovery amount will be spread in five years starting with the August 2012 billing. The motion to defer the implementation is expected to stretch in seven to eight years.

Jacela said the ERC’s decision on power increase dated December 26, 2011 was only received by the City Mayor’s office in June 18.

It is not the first time that ERC approved the power rate increases in Iloilo City. The first hike was in June 2010 of P0.26 for five years and on January 2011 of P.09 as fuel cost adjustments.

The total P0.67 increases by PEDC on power rate within two years is in direct opposite with the power plant’s assurance of P2 decrease per kwh after the power plant was inaugurated two years ago.

Jacela said they are going to contest the latest power rate increase as part of the power plant’s investments and social acceptability in this city.