📋 Tender Overview
Senator Win Gatchalian urged the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to fast-track a transition plan for implementing the Retail Competition Open Access (RCOA) down to the household level to enable retail consumers to tap the most competitive electricity supplier.
"The aspiration is to bring competition all the way down to the household level," said Gatchalian, aiming to give ordinary consumers more control over their electricity supply.
RCOA, initially implemented in 2013, currently allows consumers with a monthly peak demand of at least 500 kilowatts (kW) to switch to retail electricity suppliers within the Competitive Retail Electricity Market (CREM) due to lower rates compared to traditional distribution utilities.
To further drive this initiative, Gatchalian urged the ERC to lower the eligibility, enabling more consumers to participate. He emphasized that while the RCOA cannot be implemented immediately on households due to technical constraints, the ERC needs to put in place a transition plan.
"Without the transition plan, the distribution utilities will not move because the status quo is beneficial to them. What we want is for the consumers to be empowered," Gatchalian said.
As part of the transition plan, the ERC may allow voluntary transition for consumers who can afford to shoulder the cost of the meter needed to implement RCOA, he added.
According to the vice chairperson of the Senate Committee on Energy, the ERC needs to pave the way as soon as possible for the implementation of RCOA on households as it would enhance competition and consumer choice while promoting greater reliability and affordability of electricity. A system similar to RCOA is already being implemented in many countries including Singapore and the United Kingdom, he noted.
"I am not forcing the commission to do it tomorrow. But we need to see that transition already," he ended.
