ERC caps power transmission firm’s revenues

Manila Times.net

BY EUAN PAULO C. AÑONUEVO REPORTER

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has approved the maximum annual revenue of the country’s power transmission monopoly for the next five years. In a decision, the regulator approved the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ (NGCP) revenue requirement of P40.47 billion in 2011; P41.65 billion in 2012; P43.37 billion in 2013; P44.39 billion in 2014; and P44.12 billion in 2015 for the third regulatory period 2011 to 2015.

The respective amount would be used by NGCP for operating and capital expenses of the power grid.

As of end-2009, the country’s virtual power highway was made up of 19,425 circuit kilometers of transmission lines and 23,853 megavolt-amperes of substation capacity.

In addition to this, NGCP earlier rolled out plans to put up a number of transmission projects to help ease transmission line constraints in the grid, which has caused unstable supply of electricity and spikes in power rates.

From the fourth quarter of 2010 to the first semester of 2011, NGCP will commence with 11 transmission line and substation projects to allow new power plants to be brought into the grid, to meet growth in demand, and to improve the reliability and N-1 requirements of the Philippine Grid Code.

”N-1" refers to the capability of the power grid to withstand the loss of a major line without a customer experiencing a power interruption.

Based on the NGCP’s spending forecast for the next five years, the ERC pegged the company’s average transmission rate at P364.75 per kilowatthour per month (kWh/mo) for 2011; P362.43 per kWh/mo in 2012; P360.54 per kWh/mo in 2013; P359.37 per kWh/mo in 2014; and P358.39 per kWh/mo in 2015 to cover its revenue requirements.