PCC, ERC agree to cooperate to push competition in power sector

THE Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) said Monday that it signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), thereby completing a “three-way partnership” with the Department of Energy (DoE) in promoting competition and coordinating investigations in the energy sector.

PCC Chair Arsenio M. Balisacan said the agreement with the ERC “exhibits how the competition agency and sector regulators play complementary roles in promoting competition in the sector while fulfilling their respective mandates.”

“Our partnership allows for the sharing of information and coordination of enforcement actions toward a more robust competition landscape in the energy sector,” he said in a statement.

The MoA with ERC, which was signed on Monday, comes a month after a similar agreement between PCC and the DoE by creating a “collaborative mechanisms such as information sharing, investigation support, joint task forces, and continued capacity building and consultations.”

PCC said the partnership with ERC allows for the conduct of joint fact-finding inquiries on competition matters in the power industry. It also eases consultations with institutions or entities, including the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC), the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), and energy generation companies.

It said ahead of the MoA, a tripartite task force was formed by the three agencies “to coordinate probes on alleged collusion or abuses of dominance in the power industry through information exchange and fact-finding.”

It said the “policy mandate” of the DoE, the regulatory functions of the ERC, and “the market competition lens” of the PCC will be combined in the three agencies’ joint efforts.

PCC said the agencies “expect to make headway in probing allegations of collusion or abuse of dominance amid a series of shutdowns among power plants that may have contributed to increase in electricity prices earlier this year.”

“The PCC and ERC recognize the merit of adopting a coordinated approach toward the shared goal of promoting competition in the power industry. We are confident our combined expertise and investigative capacities will lead to a stronger push for competition enforcement in this critical sector,” Mr. Balisacan said. — Victor V. Saulon