ERC denies NASECORE motion on Meralco

Business World Online

Posted on August 31, 2012 07:43:53 PM

The Energy Regulatory Commission has denied the motion of the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms, Inc. (NASECORE) to stop Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) application to increase the generation under-recoveries saying the distribution utility complied with the requirements of the commission.

In its motion to dismiss, NASECORE said Meralco failed to meet the commission’s rules on jurisdictional/publication requirements because it should publish a new supplemental application.

In an order dated July 30, the commission denied NASECORE’s motion to dismiss Meralco’s original and supplemental applications to confirm generation, transmission, system loss and lifeline subsidy over- or under-recoveries filed last Jan. 25 as the distribution utility changed the computation of the generation rate over/under-recover (GOUR) without publication.

“What NASECORE insists is not applicable because Meralco is not applying for an increase in generation rate but generation under-recoveries,” ERC executive director Francisco Saturnino C. Juan said in a phone interview yesterday.

In March 2011, Meralco filed an instant application with the ERC to authorize it to collect under- and over-recoveries for the generation, transmission, system loss and lifeline subsidy pass-through costs and carrying costs for the February 2010 period, which was subject to a hearing in Feb. 1.

It requested an increase of P0.0483 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for generation rate under-recovery of P1 billion for 12 months, a decrease of P0.0127 kWh for transmission over-recovery of P110.6 million for six months, a decrease of P0.0027 kWh for system loss over-recovery of P425.2 million for six months and an increase of P0.0005 kWh for lifeline subsidy under-recovery of P9.16 million for one month.

However, prior to the filing of its formal offer of evidence, Meralco discovered that it did not include other customers under the time-of-use (TOU) rate in its computation of generation recoveries. It submitted an additional computation to increase by P0.0048 kWh for generation recoveries of P126.45 million for 12 months.

The ERC also said the pre-trial conference and evidentiary hearing on the supplemental application of Meralco is set in Sept. 5 at 10 a.m. at the ERC Hearing Room at the Pacific Center Building, Pasig City.

“What Meralco is asking is the generation adjustment to recover the generation under-recoveries. Implementation of the adjustment is still subject to hearing and, after the hearing, the ERC will then decide whether to approve the application of Meralco,” Mr. Juan explained. -- Danessa O. Rivera    source