Posted by ReyFort Media
MANILA — Meralco Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Manuel V. Pangilinan on Wednesday said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s proposed removal of system loss charges from consumers raises questions about who will bear the cost of the losses.
Pangilinan said Meralco will cooperate with the government as it considers amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) following Marcos’ call to remove system loss charges from consumers’ electricity bills.
“Inherent in any operation that involves transmission…will involve some losses. That’s the way it is when you push electricity throught the copper wires that will make resistance. The longer the wires are, the more the losses will be. It is not a question of inefficiency, it’s just the way it is. The real question is who bears the cost?” Pangilinan said.
“If we were to say January 1, no more system losses, then that’s telling us to eat the losses arising from the system losses within our network. There are also system losses from the gate of our plant, from the grid to Meralco,” he added.
Meanwhile, Meralco Senior Vice President and Head of Regulatory Management Jose Ronald Valles said the proposed removal of system loss charges would have to undergo the process of amending the EPIRA.
“Part of that process is the solicitation of the comments and inputs from all relevant stakeholders, including distribution utilities and generation, and even the regulators the transmission sector, Department of Energy, among others,” Valles said.
He added that until Meralco receives a copy of the proposed amendment, the company cannot determine its potential impact on Meralco’s operations.
“So as of now, we don’t know what will come out in the final version of the amendment, so until we see that, we don’t even have a draft at the moment of that amendment. Until we see that, we cannot speculate; we cannot determine how much will be the impact of that on the operations of Meralco,” he said. (I.Lee/abs-cbn news)
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