Senator Win Gatchalian on Saturday urged the Energy Regulatory Commission to approve on time the power supply agreements between distribution utilities and generation companies to ensure a steady and low-cost power supply in the country.

Gatchalian made the statement after the ERC issued its revised competitive selection process guidelines to govern power supply contracting or PSA of distribution utilities.

The revised guidelines that were supposed to be released in August were issued last Friday, 6 October, by the ERC.

The regulatory body said it had to notify the Department of Energy last August on the necessity of considering the comments of stakeholders and revising the draft guidelines despite the initial consultations with different stakeholders that were already held starting in July this year.

Gatchalian said the ERC should hasten the implementation of the new power bidding guidelines " to ensure compliance of distribution utilities and active participation of consumer groups."

"We're hoping that strict implementation of the bidding guidelines would result in the timely approval by the ERC of PSAs and help DUs to procure supply at the least cost for the benefit of consumers," he said.

Gatchalian noted some 527 pending PSAs before the ERC from 2003 to 2023, with 18 in 2022 and 16 still pending this year.

"The ERC should also encourage consumer groups to participate in the bidding through active monitoring, a privilege that wasn't previously afforded them," he said, noting that this would help ensure transparency in the implementation of the CSP and enhance accountability in every PSA.

"We need better accountability in the implementation of the PSAs, which means it is more difficult for generation companies to just walk away from the PSAs. This would help stabilize energy supply and eliminate surprises in terms of pricing," he added.

In order to ensure the supply of electricity for the least cost under Republic Act 9136, or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, the ERC said the revised CSP guidelines would reinforce the obligation of DUs to determine whether the least cost could be met.