Reforming the Philippines's electric industry: What went wrong

Implementation is not the sole culprit.

The Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) was finalized in early 2001, and over the past 12 years it has gone under a lot of criticisms.

During the Power & Electricity Conference 2014 Philippines organized by Terrapinn on January 18, Roger Buendia, first vice president for trading and marketing, said that the law is good but that implementation was a little too late. 

"During the time that supply was heavy, EPIRA could have worked. But we implemented it 10 years after, it’s not working anymore, because there’s a shortage in supply," he added.

Ernesto Joseph Nocos, vice president for business development of the Alsons Energy Development Corporation, agreed that wrong timing plus wrong implementation are to blame. He indicated, however, that EPIRA was able to accomplish one of its main objectives: to remove the challenge of providing generation capacity away from the government's hands.

Nocos said that the government did not have enough resources and with EPIRA, power generation projects were able to come in and continue to arrive in the country.