By Juzel L. Danganan
MANILA, April 16 (PNA) – A Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Pasig City has prevented the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) from collecting Php 234.9 million in fine imposed on Aboitiz-subsidiary Therma Mobile Inc. (TMO), according to Aboitiz Power.
”After considering the factual and legal circumstances, RTC Branch 157 of Pasig City found TMO’s petition to be meritorious and issued a writ of preliminary injunction preventing PEMC, through the PEM Board, from: demanding or collecting from TMO the amount of Php234.9 million in financial penalties,” Aboitiz Power said in a disclosure with the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Thursday.
The decision also prevented PEMC from charging interest on the Php 234.9 million penalty.
It also blocked PEMC to submit its investigation report to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), until the two parties have finished the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) dispute process.
The Philippine Electricity Market Board previously fined TMO for violating market rules that power plants must run when called to.
TMO earlier said it could not run its four power barges at the highest capacity on November to December 2013, explaining they could not run at full 234-megawatt (MW) capacity due to the bad state of the transmission facilities.
It noted that the power barges were only acquired in November 2013, adding the facilities needed rehabilitation, having not operated for at least five years.
TMO said it had run at the possible capacity of 100 MW, having passed off the power to the Manila Electric Company (Meralco).
It stressed that forcing the transmission line to pass off the power could have resulted in its collapse.
The Nov-Dec 2013 period coincides with the alleged Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) trading collusion, which forced the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) to pass on the stopped generation charges at Php 4.15 per kilowatthour (kWh). (PNA)