Hontiveros urges ERC to simplify power rate-setting mechanism, replace 'complex' PBR
Senator Risa Hontiveros today urged the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to review its power rate-setting mechanism, saying that its complex and ambiguous nature leads to questionable over-recoveries, making it 'consumer unfriendly'.
The statement came after Manila Electric Company (Meralco) slashed its power rates for a second straight month in March, factoring in the approved refunds ordered by the power regulator.
Hontiveros said that while the P13B Meralco refund to consumers is good news to welcome, the decision of ERC to grant Meralco's petition "obscures the original sin" that created the problem of over-recovery, if not fraud, in the power industry.