Unplanned outages by several other power plants also tightened supply, jacking up prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), the country's trading floor for electricity, where Meralco also sources its power requirements. Contributing factors Indeed, the problem goes beyond Meralco even as militant groups are underscoring the power distributor's alleged corporate greed. The problem, observers say, stems from a host of reasons including a flawed law, the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001, which promised to bring down power rates and regulators that do not have enough teeth.