by Ben Rosario April 7, 2016
Former Agham party list Rep. Angelo
Palmones has warned of an impending hike in power rates unless swift action is
taken by concerned sectors to stop it.
Palmones said consumers will
again suffer the burden of additional cost to the already high power rate as a
result of an additional item on the monthly electric bill called the FIT-All or
Feed-in Tariff Allowance.
The FIT-All, Palmones explained will
finance incentives for renewable energy developers who will put up renewable
energy generation facilities.
“We heard that TransCo will
start to collect from electric coops and private power distributors an increase
of up to P0.12 centavos from the previous P0.04 centavos per kilowatt hour, and
this will be nationwide. This is a 200 percent increase or triple the original
FIT allowance. Why will consumers shoulder the incentives for RE developers?”
Palmones asked.
The former lawmaker lamented that
Mindanao has been continuously suffering from brownouts, yet the additional
charge on consumer bills in the area will add on to their burden.
“Nagdudusa na ang consumers sa
kakulangan sa power service, taasan pa ang singil sa kuryente, nasaan naman ang
hustisya sa gagawin nilang iyan?” Palmones said.
While stressing that he supports the
renewable energy program of both government and private sector, Palmones he
pointed out that there are existing renewable facilities with greater outputs
and which may be enhanced for better performance.
“A look at the DOE 2014 Philippine
Power Statistics report on power generation by source showed geothermal
generates 10,308 GWh while other renewable sources (wind, solar, biomass) has
364 GWh. Or on installed generating capacity (in MW) geothermal has
1,918 while new RE is 437,” Palmones explained.
The first nominee of Agham
Partylist, Palmones said the increase could have adverse effects to both
households and business establishments and at this difficult times government
must find other alternatives or means to relieve the consumers of the added
expense.
He vowed to push for congressional
investigation into the added costs to benefit power consumers if given the
opportunity to sit in Congress.
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