Alleged Conspiracy To Increase Rates Could Be The Reason Behind Power Shutdowns
POWER SHUTDOWNS IN LUZON – An alleged conspiracy initiated by power companies to increase rates could be the reason behind the recent power shutdowns.
In the previous reports, an increase in the power rate was announce by Meralco, March of this year.
Bayan Muna chairperson together with Senator Sherwin Gatchalian called for an investigation on the recent power shutdowns that involved five power plants in Luzon.
Colmenares doubted the power shortage saying that it could be intended to justify increase in power rates.
This is based on the reports from Inquirer.
According to the article, Neri Colmenares said during an interview that they suspect power companies are only creating artificial shortages. Here is his full statement:
“We suspect these power companies are just using these artificial power shortages, knowing they hold us consumers as hostages, with summer [here] and national elections coming”
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, also head of the senate’s committee on energy said that he would ask the authorities from Department of Energy (DOE) and Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) to check on possible collusion among power companies. This was after Luzon grid was put under red alert last Wednesday.
Gatchalian says that is really important to check for the possible collusion because of the sharp increase of price on the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market or WESM reported also last Wednesday.
He also said that he was worried that there might not be enough electricity for the May elections.
He expressed his concern about the possible shortage of electrity in his statement:
“If you’re talking about 1,400 and this concerns a lot of plants, then the possibility that we will have brownouts rises. And that should be the primary concern of DOE, to ensure there would be enough, or else that would create a lot of tension during the election period.”
He released this statement referring to the supply of electricity and the amount needed for the balloting and counting of the votes during the election.
That is all there is to it, we’ll post updates as soon as we get them.
