Not that easy, says PECO lawyer on 'democratization of ownership' proposal
SAYNO
"It's not that easy," was the curt reply of lawyer Hans Sayno, legal counsel of Panay Electric Company (PECO), on the pronouncement of a non-government organization (NGO) that consumers would take over the electric firm as a result of an Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) order to refund consumers of about P2.89 billion.
Atty. Romeo Gerochi of Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), an NGO leading the crusade against PECO, earlier said that the amount of money refundable to PECO consumers could be converted into an equity for consumers to become part owners of the power utility.
Sayno said in a television interview that Gerochi's proposal involves a lot of processes and is actually far from reality.
ERC in an order dated June 9, 2006 directed PECO to refund consumers some P2.89 billion in overcharges covering the period February 1996 to July 2005.
ERC ordered the power utility to implement the refund of P0.0926/kWh starting the next billing cycle, and further directing it to submit within 10 days from its initial implementation a sworn statement indicating its compliance.
GEROCHI
The ten-page ERC order found PECO to have over-recovered from the use of Panay Power Corporation's Power Cost Charge (PCC) computation instead of National Power Corporation's effective rate which is inconsistent with its Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) approved by the then Energy Regulatory Board (now ERC) resulting to an over-recovery amounting to P2,438,498,053.00.
Mirant Global's Panay Power Corporation is the sole supplier of power to PECO.
Also, the commission found that PECO converted its pilferage recoveries amounting to P3,139,534.00 into kWh sales and deducted the same from kWh purchased and generated for the previous month instead of deducting said recoveries from the power cost.
ERC also found that PECO has over-recovered from the new grossed-up factor mechanism adopted by the Commission which provided a true-up mechanism that allows the distribution utilities to recover the actual costs of purchased power.
In the implementation of the refund, ERC directed PECO to reflect the PPA refund as a separate item in the bill using the phrase "Previous Years' Adjustment on Power Cost".
Gerochi called the ERC ruling the biggest victory in their more than 20 years of struggle against PECO.
"While others have surrendered along the way, we continued this fight for I believe that the entire Ilonggo electricity consumers must be protected from the malpractices of PECO. The ERC Order only affirmed our claims that PECO has been over-charging us for a long time now and directed them to return our money. Imagine their over-charges has already reached billions of pesos of consumers' hard-earned money," said Gerochi.