Council invites Veco, energy officials to power rates hearing
THE Cebu City Council has scheduled a public hearing on May 14 on complaints of Cebu City residents of overcharging done by some power providers.
The City Council invited officials of the Visayas Electric Co. (Veco), Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm), Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) and the Energy Regulatory Commission to address the issue.
Councilor Nestor Archival Sr. is also asking Veco to be prepared to refund their customers if the accusations of overcharging are proven true.
Councilor Gerardo Carillo encouraged consumer groups in the city to follow the example of groups in Manila who filed a petition of overcharging against Meralco.
The Supreme Court directed the power distributor to refund their customers.
“In Cebu there is no complaint. I encourage consumer groups in Cebu to initiate a petition against Veco at the ERC to compel them to pay refund for their overcharging,” he said.
Archival, chairperson of the council’s energy, transportation, communications and other utilities committee, spoke out on Veco’s under/over recoveries of their pass through charges and double transmission charges implemented by WESM and PSALM. He said the slow implementation of unbundling or the separation of the power sectors hinder the entry of new and smaller players in the industry.
Archival said the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) also lacks a “strong regulator” that will balance the conflicting needs and wants of the consumers, the producers and service providers.
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