By
Lenie Lectura - June 13, 2019
THE Energy Regulatory
Commission (ERC) has authorized the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities
Management Corp. (PSALM) to recover P5.117 billion from consumers to pay
for the stranded debt of the National Power Corp. (NPC).
“The petition filed by
PSALM for the recovery of the NPC’s Stranded Contract Costs [SCC] of the
Universal Charge [UC] is hereby approved with modification,” the ERC said in
its 52-page decision.
The approved amount
will translate into a power-rate increase of P0.0543 per kilowatt-hour (kWh).
The amount would be collected for 12 months. “Accordingly, all distribution
utilities and the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines are hereby directed to
collect from the consumers the above UC-SCC charge starting the next billing
period upon receipt of this order for a period of 12 months,” the ERC added.
PSALM had originally
applied for P7,354,563,448.91 worth of UC-SCC for 2014, equivalent to P0.0907
per kWh covering a one-year period.
“The resulting rate is
lower than the rate of recovery proposed by PSALM,” the ERC said. “In
arriving at the corresponding rate for the recovery of UC-SCC, the
Commission considered impact to customers and effect of the recovery period.”
The Electric Power
Industry Reform Act defines stranded debt as “any unpaid financial obligations
of the National Power Corp. which have not been liquidated by the proceeds from
the sales and privatization of NPC assets.”
SCC, meanwhile, refers
to the excess of the contracted cost of electricity under eligible Independent
Power Producers (IPP) contracts of NPC over the actual selling price of the
contracted energy output of such contracts in the market.
No comments:
Post a Comment