DOE issues policies on electricity bill transparency, RE industry growth

By Lenie Lectura - September 4, 2018

https://businessmirror.com.ph/doe-issues-policies-on-electricity-bill-transparency-re-industry-growth/

A Department of Energy (DOE) official on Tuesday said that the agency has signed two new policies aimed at enhancing the growth of renewable- energy (RE) industry and ensure consumers of greater transparency in their electricity bills.

Energy Undersecretary Felix William B. Fuentebella said at the sidelines of Powertrends 2018 held in Pasay City that both proposed policies were approved on August 24.

“The RPS [renewable portfolio standards] for off-grid areas was signed on August 24. It’s still being processed for publication. This is almost the same as RPS on-grid, except that the mandatory participant in the off-grid is the generation sector,” he said.

The uniform billing was also signed on August 24 and will be published, as well, Fuentebella added.

Both DOE circulars will take effect 15 days after publication.

The DOE issued in June a draft circular adopting the framework for a uniform monthly electricity bill format.

The agency wants distribution utilities (DUs) to reflect all corresponding charges they collect from all electricity end-users, including, but not limited to, generation, transmission, distribution, supply and metering charges, bill and meter deposits, including interest and any other charges that the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) may approve.

It said the electricity bill should be prepared in a simple and easy-to-understand format.  All DUs should use a uniform bill format prescribed by the ERC.

Section 25 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act  (Epira) requires that every DU shall identify and segregate in its bills to end-users the components of the retail rate.

The implementing rules and regulations of Epira also called for the unbundling of the power industry’s business activities and rates to include generation, transmission, distribution and supply, and unbundling of business activities between regulated and nonregulated activities, including the removal of cross-subsidies, subject to review and approval by the ERC.

“The DOE takes cognizance of the need to empower electricity end-users with greater understanding and transparency on the charges in its monthly electricity bill by unbundling the electricity charge components, including those components that are not part of the unbundled rates but was collected from the consumers for security and reliability of services,” the DOE had said.

The bill should contain the generation charge, transmission charge, system loss, distribution charge, supply charge, metering charge, other charges, subsidies or discounts, senior citizen discount,  government taxes, local taxes, universal charge, missionary electrification charge, environmental charge, stranded debts and contract costs of National Power Corp., feed-in-tariff allowance, among others.

The bill should also contain the bill deposit including interest and the meter deposit, including interest, billing summary, among others.

Meanwhile, the RPS for off-grid areas mandates generators, distribution utilities and suppliers to source a specified portion of their electricity requirements from eligible RE resources.

“The RPS rules for off-grid areas will contribute to the growth of the renewable-energy industry through increased development and utilization of RE resources in the countryside where significant percentage are using expensive fuels. Thus, we will be able to diversify energy supply,” DOE Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi had said.