RCOA allows qualified high-demand consumers to choose their own energy suppliers-the Electric Power Industry Reform Act’s (Epira) ultimate vision of allowing all end-users to choose their own electricity supplier is nearing realization, the ERC said.
‘The Epira envisioned a power sector in which every end-user could, in time, choose its electricity supplier. Twenty-five years later, that vision is within reach.’
Under the RCOA framework, eligibility was expanded last June 26 to include any customer with an average monthly peak demand of 100 kilowatt (kW) or more, adding an estimated 12,000 new end-users to the 2,300 who had already transitioned.
To achieve full retail competition by 2031, the ERC has established a five-year roadmap guided by domestic and international insights. This strategy dictates that annual threshold reductions will only proceed through formal readiness gates after ensuring the necessary metering, data management, and consumer-protection infrastructures are fully operational.
‘The Commission recognizes that this timetable is ambitious but necessary. The competitive retail electricity market in the country began in 2013; 13 years later, it is still only at 100kW.
The Commission, look to other jurisdictions like Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Australia where each took a decade or more to reach full residential choice, and each had to introduce safety nets after liberalization.
The roadmap is designed to move quickly where readiness permits and to pause where it does not,’ the ERC said.