Wednesday, May 07, 2008 Arroyo wants IPPs contracts reviewed: aide
PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wants a review of the contracts of independent power producers (IPPs) in order to lower power rates, her economic adviser Albay Governor Jose Salceda said.
Salceda said he had asked the President if there is truth to reports that government is going after the Manila Electric Company (Meralco).
He recalled the President as saying, "No. I just want a review of the IPPs. I want lower power rates, period."
In her opening speech during Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, Arroyo said power rates could only be lowered if Meralco would buy at cheaper rates from its own power producers.
She called for support in government's petitions before the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to bring down Meralco's rates.
The Estrada administration reviewed the negotiated contracts of the IPPs that were made under the Ramos administration, which were resorted to stop the long hours of blackouts.
The Arroyo administration also conducted its own review and renegotiated some of the contracts.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC) said prices of electricity is expected to go down next month if all indicators will continue to be stable.
"If all things being equal it (prices) could go down and should stable the prices," said Lase Holopainen of the PEMC during Tuesday's press briefing at the Edsa Shangri-la Hotel in Makati.
According to Holopainen, the early rainy season could help ease and decongest the high demand for electricity during the summer months.
He stressed that price increases were only driven by two factors such as temperature and economic condition.
During the presentation, PEMC operations and planning chief Isidro Cacho said the peak demand was recorded last April 10 registering about 6,619 megawatt (MW) exceeding the 2007 annual peak of 6,589 MW.
Cacho explained that the increase in demand was due to "weather, economic and the high number of power plant outages." (JMR/MSN/Sunnex)
