Nov. 18--The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), the power sector's rate regulator, announced on Tuesday that it was open to a price cap on electricity prices--if the government saw a need for it. "It's a policy decision on the part of the government. If there is an Executive Order, stakeholders would have to follow that," said Francis Saturnino Juan, the commission's executive director.

Malacanang earlier issued Executive Order 839, which rolled back fuel prices following successive storms that killed more than 1,000 people and caused billions worth of damage to crops, infrastructure and private property in Luzon.

On Monday, Malacanang lifted Executive Order 839 amid concerns that the price cap would affect local supply as oil firms would continue to take on hefty losses from importing petroleum products, whose costs have been increasing.

Business groups argued that the order would spawn a black market and hurt the country's foreign investments climate.

Local oil industry executives earlier said that local prices were already off by P4.50 to P5 a liter compared with international prices.

But before Malacanang lifted the Executive Order, a number of groups also clamored for the inclusion of electricity prices under a similar price cap to help consumers cope with the effects of the calamities.

Despite this, the Energy Regulatory Commission official said that the regulator has yet to receive a proposal from any group as well a directive from the government for such a scheme.

"It's hard to speculate on that," Juan added.

Petitions for rate hike

A number of power firms currently have pending petitions for rate increase before the commission.

Among them is state-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor) who earlier proposed to increase its rates by roughly a total of P1.51 a kilowatt-hour for Luzon and P1.34 a kilowatt-hour in the Visayas. On the other hand, it sought to lower its rates in Mindanao by about P0.10 a kilowatt-hour.

The proposed adjustments were borne from Napocor's 14th Generation Rate Adjustment Mechanism (GRAM) and 13th Incremental Currency Exchange Rate Adjustment--two commission-approved adjustment mechanisms designed to allow the company to recoup losses; and from Independent Power Producers (IPP) and foreign exchange rate fluctuation costs that it incurs in the course of producing electricity.

Besides those petitions, Napocor still has pending applications for rate changes under its adjustment mechanisms for a proposed total increase of P0.17 a kilowatt-hour in Luzon and P2.02 a kilowatt-hour in the Visayas; and a reduction of P0.37 a kilowatt-hour in Mindanao.

Juan said that the Energy Regulatory Commission has yet to act on Napocor's rate hike petitions as they were still evaluating the proposals.

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