MANILA, Philippines–The Senate and House failed on Tuesday to finalize their reconciled joint resolution granting emergency powers to President Aquino and will have to meet again at the earliest Wednesday night.
After an eight and a half-hour-long meeting at the Midas Hotel in Pasay City, the bicameral committee tackling the joint resolution still has to agree on eight “small” issues that include a provision that will allow the government to pass on to consumers the cost of implementing the proposed Interruptible Load Program (ILP) from March to July, according to Sen. Serge Osmeña, chair of the Senate committee on energy.
“Well that can be compromised, we can do a compromise and it’s not a deal breaker,” Osmeña said of the pass-on provision.
He said they still have to find out how much it would cost to pass on to consumers once the ILP is implemented although based on initial estimates of the Manila Electric Company it could reach P660 million for the next three months.
Under the Senate version, self-generating end-users are asked to help ease the shortage during peak hours through the ILP at a cost of P7 to P9 per kilowatt hour.
They would turn off their connection to the grid and use their own generator sets if the grid’s net operating reserve runs below 350 megawatts or if there is imminent overloading of transmission lines, where demand is higher than supply.
In return, the ILP providers will be reimbursed by the government for the difference between their cost of using their own gensets and their cost of tapping Meralco which would then be passed on to consumers.
‘Matter of policy’
Asked whether the government could afford to subsidize this cost, Osmena said as a “matter of policy” the government should not be afraid to pass on the cost.
“It will teach our people on their spending habits…To me it’s just a matter of principle. If you don’t discipline the consumer to lower consumption of electricity, it’s not the way to do it,” he said.
Osmeña said there was also no guarantee that there won’t be any power outages even with President Aquino’s emergency powers because no one could say if a major power plant will break down.
What they are watching out for is that there would be a good supply of electricity during the hottest days of summer which fall during the period from April 1 to 15, the senator said.
“We hope no big plant will break down,” Osmeña said.
Osmeña said the bicameral committee could meet at the earliest Wednesday night or at the latest, next Monday.