GNPower obtains ERC retail permit
Sunday, July 23, 2006
By MYRNA M. VELASCO
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has approved the application of local firm GNPower Ltd. Co. for a retail electricity supplier’s license, officially giving the latter the go-signal to firm up supply contracts for its planned 600-megawatt coal-fired power facility in Mariveles, Bataan.
The regulator said GNPower is the first electricity supplier to comply with the directive mandating prospectice electricity providers to secure a license from ERC prior to marketing their electricity outputs.
ERC bared that the power plant project of GNPower is scheduled for commercial operation by the third quarter of 2010; considered a critical period for the Luzon grid when supply and demand are already at meeting point. Construction is expected by the middle of next year.
GNPower is a limited partnership of Power Partners Ltd. Co. and PMR Holding Corporation, duly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
"Following the ERC’s issuance of a Supplier’s License to GNPower, the latter can now legally engage in marketing activities for its retail electricity supply business and secure supply contracts with prospective end-users," the regulatory body noted in a press statement.
ERC chairman Rodolfo B. Albano Jr. emphasized that the award of the supplier’s license to the first grantee is another milestone in the implementation of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) and a move closer to pursuing "competition at the retail."
The regulator added that "the Supplier’s License was approved subject to GNPower’s continuing compliance with the guidelines for the issuance of licenses to retail electricity suppliers" and the consequent obligations attached to it.
The rules prescribe that retail electricity suppliers shall be qualified on the basis of both their financial and technical capabilities to deliver service to endconsumers; noting further that it must possess outstanding credit standards to demonstrate that it has the financial strength to engage in such endeavor.
Section 29 of the power industry reform law prescribes that the ERC shall issue licenses to electricity suppliers that will operate in the contestable market, or the segment of endusers which will have a choice of electricity supplier as may be determined by the ERC, consistent with the provisions of the EPIRA.
It was prescribed that any person, natural or juridical, who is registered with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), with the SEC, and/or with the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), may apply as a RES with the ERC as an entity engaged in retail electricity supply business; given that it has the necessary financial, technical and managerial capabilities to effectively undertake the business.
Those considered to qualify as RES would include: a) a generation company or its affiliate; b) a distribution utility that shall operate as a RES outside its franchise area; c) an affiliate of a distribution utility with respect to the latter’s contestable market or outside its franchise area; d) an independent power producer administrator; or e) any other person intending to engage in the selling, brokering or marketing of electricity to the contestable market.
Exempted from securing a Supplier’s License are distribution utilities within their franchise areas and persons authorized by appropriate entities to supply electricity within their respective economic zones. (MMV)
posted by philpower @ 4:51 PM,
