I’ve been oscillating back and forth between “Early open access is a great idea” and “Whoa, what’s going on here?” Today as I mull over the assertions being made by PIPPA in the Hearings, the following fundamental question (or issue) arose in my head:
PIPPA seems be quite confident that the eligible IPPs will be able to craft together offers to the large industrials that will be more appealing than any other power supply option they now have.
Meralco is currently responsible for procuring power to supply these same industrials. So why haven’t the IPPs and Meralco not already negotiated the very same ‘appealing’ offers that PIPPA postulates doing directly with the industrials under Interim Open Access?
It’s the same load. The same so-called ‘excess’ power. And such transactions are already permitted under the existing regulatory framework.
Delving into this single question elicits a whole host of other issues – but I won’t complicate this post with them.
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Hi! Would you know who the members of PIPPA are?
That’s actually a very good question. It came up on the very first day of Hearings when Pete Ilagan of NASECORE was pursuing this point doggedly in cross-examination of PIPPA President Pantangco. His answer got very confusing. Finally, it was agreed that he would submit a list of members that were presently current with their dues (but some firms or people are considered PIPPA members even if they are not current – i.e. they attend meetings and influence PIPPAs activities).
I never got the list. I tried to furiously write down the names he was verbally reeling off, but I couldn’t keep up.
Notably, AES/Masinloc is not a member.
But most of the NPC BOTs are, the First Gen group, and some of the PEPOA members.
Pantancgo said PIPPA represented 8,800 MW of capacity in Luzon of which 6,200 MW are IPPs of Napocor and 2011 MW are BOOs contracted to Meralco.
At first Pantangco began listing members of the Board, then shifted to listing corporate members. I’ll just list down some that I had scribbled in my notes:
First Gas (Santa Rita and San Lorenzo)
First Gen Hydro (Pan/Masiway)
Buaung Power (BOT to NPC)
Bacani – Kepco
Lopez Dee
Louis Miguel Aboitiz (Luzon Hydro, East Asia, SNAP)
Freddie Puno (Team Energy and San Roque)
Santana (Quezon Power)
Ramon Abaya (Minergy)
CBK
Alstrom Group
Trans Asia