THE Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that electricity generation and power supply are not public utility operations but are still under the regulation of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
In the resolution of the En Banc dated August 1, 2023, the court upheld sections 6 and 29 of Republic Act No. 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA).
The court also upheld sections of the law which empower the ERC to fix and approve the universal charge imposed on electricity end-users as well as the section which gives the commission the power to fix charges to allow distribution utilities to recover their losses.
Marcos eyes review of EPIRA to bring down power costs
The resolution stemmed from the petition, filed by Anakpawis and Pamalakaya representative Fernando Hicap, which challenged the constitutionality of the EPIRA provisions, following the decision of the ERC to authorize Meralco to recover its generation costs from consumers through a staggered basis.
“A careful perusal of the provision would easily demonstrate that the law itself provides for the policies to guide the ERC in relation to the fixing of the system loss caps,” the court said.
The court stressed that to be considered a public utility, a business must provide a service essential to the general public.
The court noted that power generation and supply companies are not public utilities because they offer their services to limited customers and do not deal directly with the general public.
“However, they remain under government regulation because the EPIRA expressly provides safeguards against abuse or irregular activity, such as the requirement on these companies to secure from the ERC a certificate of compliance, among other regulations,” the court said in a statement.
During his third State of the Nation Address last year, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. called on Congress to review EPIRA, the country’s key law on electricity, in a bid to bring down power costs. (ABS-CBN News)
