A power consumer group urged the Department of Energy (DOE) to evaluate and revise an existing circular that governs the procurement of power supply agreements by distribution utilities.

In a letter sent to DOE Secretary Sharon Garin, the consumer group National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms (Nasecore) argued that the Competitive Selection Process (CSP) is having difficulty reaching its objective for transparency and fair competition.

The letter was also sent to President Marcos, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, Senate President Francis Escudero, and House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez.

The CSP policy, which is managed by the DOE, aims to promote the needs of the consumers but  Nasecore president Petronilo Pete Ilagan said it also did not meet its objective of attaining least-cost power supply procurement.

 “Our continuing monitoring indicates that the CSP mechanism has not delivered meaningful market competition. On the contrary, it has largely preserved the dominance of incumbent and affiliated generation companies,” the letter read.

 Ilagan also disclosed that there were actually no new independent or reliable power suppliers that have been introduced to dominant power generation companies, which resulted in the consistent increase in electricity rates.

“Despite DOE's issuance of CSP guidelines, distributor utilities continue to exploit exemptions, emergency procurements, or procedural discretion to bypass genuine competition,” the letter signed by Ilagan and dated June 3 read.

In the letter, Ilagan also compared two decisions of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) approving a P4.0459/kilowatt hour power supply agreement (PSA) rate in December 2019 and the P5.7816/kWh PSA rate in November last year.

“This substantial rate disparity further highlights the policy failure in ensuring least-cost Procurement… The CSP's repeated failure to deliver new suppliers or fair rates-particularly in Meralco’s case exposes deep flaws in policy design and enforcement,” the letter read.

“Without urgent reform, Filipino consumers will remain at the mercy of anti-competitive arrangements and ever-rising electricity costs,” it added.

In the same letter, Nasecore recommended to publicly declare the current CSP framework a policy failure and recognize its inability to ensure transparent, competitive, and cost-effective procurement; and, conduct a “comprehensive overhaul” of the CSP circular, starting with a DOE-led, multistakeholder review.

Additionally, the group advocated for full public disclosure of CSP documents, including bid criteria, evaluations, and awarded contracts.