The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has updated some provisions of the Open Access Transmission Service (OATS) rules, simplifying the charges being passed on to consumers.
The OATS rules serve as the regulatory framework in the operation of the country’s power transmission network, a major responsibility latched onto system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
ERC Chairperson Agnes T. Devanadera said the major revision integrated in the OATS rules had been on the calculation of the transmission charges – that in turn will be passed on to the load customers of NGCP to be reflected in the electric bills of end consumers.
“The amended OATS rules will clarify concerns from the various transmission customers, the Department of Energy (DOE) and NGCP – particularly on the computation of transmission charges,” the ERC chief stressed.
Devanadera emphasized that “the Commission deemed it appropriate to amend the 2006 OATS rules to harmonize it with relevant rules and guidelines that we have promulgated.”
The regulatory body further conveyed that the amendments to the OATS rules had been considered to factor in “more recent regulatory policies of the Commission and address concerns raised by electric power industry stakeholders.”
The other modification in the rules, according to the ERC chief, delves on fixing the transmission charges that shall be enforced to embedded generators – primarily those that are mandated to register with the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market.
In particular, the ERC fleshed out that the rules change focus on billing determinant; system impact studies; penalty provisions; interruption and curtailment billing adjustment; as well as those on force majeure adjustments.
The ERC qualified that under the OATS rules, the regulatory body “may choose to initiate amendments for the second and subsequent regulatory periods at any time.”
It further noted that the propounded tweaks in the rules could “result from the ERC’s assessment of the OATS rules or through concerns submitted by the transmission customers.”
The OATS rules had been primarily anchored on the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA); as well as those of the Philippine Grid Code and the WESM Rules. It similarly complements the rules for setting transmission wheeling rate (RTWR) as well as the WESM manuals.