More than 11,000 residents of the California Garden Square (CGS) condominium in Mandaluyong City, are intensifying their call on the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for immediate intervention to prevent the disconnection of their electricity services.
The urgent plea to the regulatory body followed after receiving a “notice of termination and disconnection” from MPower, the retail electricity supplier (RES) arm of power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) that has been supplying the electricity needs of the residential condominium.
Without prompt regulatory intervention from the ERC, CGS residents fear that MPower will go ahead on its threat to cut off their electricity supply by February 5 this year.
CGS residents indicated that they already sent three sets of formal correspondence to the ERC, but they have yet to hear or get definitive response and action from the regulatory body. The residents, however, believe the regulatory agency will uphold its main function of protecting the welfare of consumers.
Last December, the ERC issued cease and desist order (CDO) to all retail electricity suppliers (RES) so they could be prevented from disconnecting the customers they serve, especially those that have been undergoing “dispute resolution” processes due to what were deemed as sudden changes in their power supply contracts.
CGS, which is a property development of Empire East Landholdings Inc., has eight building-clusters serving as dwelling place for many working people in the metropolis, including their children; as well as hundreds of senior citizens and retired pensioners.
The threat of power cut-off by retail supplier MPower stemmed from an unresolved dispute in their PSA and that ensued when the Meralco subsidiary firm opted to increase the rates it has been charging to CGS customers, purportedly due to fuel cost recovery adjustment (FCRA) that it has been claiming on their power supply agreement (PSA) but that is being opposed fiercely by CGS.
In its filing with the ERC, the CGS opined that the unilateral enforcement of the FCRA is not warranted because that has not been provided under the contract it inked with MPower.
On the previous billings sent by MPower, CGS emphasized that it just “initially paid, under protest” – and that was only done so, because of the “constant threat of disconnection” exhibited by the Meralco-affiliated company.
Ferdinand P. Teylan, president of CGS Condominium Association, Inc., said “we strongly believe that the FCRA has no basis under our retail supply contract,” with him emphasizing that “we join other large power users in resisting the additional imposition which runs counter to the objective of retail competition in lowering electricity rates and promotion of transparency.”
CGS reiterated that “a petition for dispute resolution was lodged with (the) ERC seeking the declaration of FCRA as unlawful and MPower’s conduct is violative of the Code of Conduct for retail market participants.”
The CGS residents noted they are “awaiting the resolution of this case as ERC asserts its jurisdiction over matters involving contractual disputes between suppliers and contestable customers.”
Contestable customers are those end-users who can already negotiate and sign power supply deals directly with their preferred electricity service providers, as underpinned by the Retail Competition and Open Access (RCOA) policy of the restructured power sector.
Despite the flustered state of the CGS homeowners and tenants, Teylan stressed “we are still hopeful that ERC will act urgently on our requests so we can transfer to our supplier of choice. The government must look into this for the sake of our thousands of residents.”
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The article was originally published in Manila Bulletin and written by Myrna M. Velasco.
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