More Photos, Forum on Electricity on the Go

Here are more photos from the ETC applicants Datigan batch which organized the forum on "Electricity on the Go: An Assessment of EPIRA" last Thursday, March 06, 2014, at the College of Engineering Theater, UP Diliman, Quezon City.

Atty. Debora Anastacia T. Layugan, Director of Market Operations Service, Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

Ms. Maria Teresa "Maitet" Diokno of the Center for Power Issues and Initiatives (CPII) and the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC).

During the open forum. I reiterated that many of the electricity angsts of the public were not created by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA). For instance, (1) Meralco monopoly is not created by EPIRA but by the Constitution (utilities reserved solely for Filipinos) and Congressional franchising. (2) Multiple taxation of power (royalties on natural gas, local taxes, excise tax, VAT, other taxes that all contribute to expensive electricity, were not created by EPIRA but by various tax laws, national and local. (3) Bureaucracies that make it difficult for new players and generating companies (gencos) to come in resulting in limited competition were not created by EPIRA but by various regulations, enacted by Congress or the various agencies (DOE, DENR, BIR, LGUs, etc.).

In short, calls to repeal EPIRA and go back to government centralization and monopolization of power generation and transmission are misplaced and wrong.

Awarding of Certificate of Appreciation. Signed by Christian Dave Gonzales (right), Batch Head of Datigan 13-B, Khim Carla Bautista and Alyanna Mae Volpane, Project Heads of Electricity on the Go.

The audience. Though held at the College of Engineering, they were mostly Economics majors.

Energy Econ 15: Electricity Angsts, Presentation at UP Diliman

The other day, I was one of three speakers in a forum on the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA) at UP Diliman. The two other speakers were Maria Teresa "Maitet" Diokno of the Center for Power Issues and Initiatives (CPII) and Atty. Debora Anastacia Layugan of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

I knew that Maitet, a fellow UPSE alumni, would be talking critically and negatively about the EPIRA as I have read one of her articles on the subject. And it's good that she spoke ahead of me. She said that the law promised many things but has not delivered. Like bringing down electricity prices but we have more unaffordable electricity rates now.

This table shows that electricity rates are more affordable now, at least in 2013 vs 2012 prices, generation charge. Our monthly electricity bill is composed of about nine items: generation charge, transmission charge, distribution charge, supply charge, metering charge, system loss charge, universal charge, lifeline subsidy, and taxes. Generation charge comprises about 50 percent of the total bill.

I discussed the immediate cause of the power rate hike last December -- a combination of planned/scheduled shutdowns and unplanned/unscheduled shutdowns of several power plants running on natural gas and coal, two of the cheap sources of electricity. Some power plants that run on nat gas had to run on diesel, or oil-fired power plants were tapped, to prevent brownouts.