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THURSDAY, 30 AUGUST 2012 20:12 PAUL ANTHONY A. ISLA / REPORTER
CONSUMERS will have to shoulder the National Power Corp.-Small Power Utilities Group’s (Napocor-Spug) costs in generating electricity in remote areas for a much longer period.
This, as the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) allowed the Napocor-Spug to collect from the universal charge for missionary electrification (UCME) the remaining P508.03 million and P3.64 billion for its generation rate adjustment mechanism (Gram) and incremental currency exchange rate adjustment (Icera), respectively.
In August last year, ERC allowed Napocor-Spug to collect from the UC-ME the other P508.03 million and P3.64 billion, respectively.
The ERC said these adjustments will suffice Napocor-Spug’s fuel expenses and incremental foreign exchange payments in 2006-2009.
“While the Gram and Icera are supposed to translate to P1.2532 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) and P0.1750/kWh, respectively, consumers can expect the current UCME to be collected from them for a much longer period,” Francis Saturnino Juan, ERC executive director and spokesman, told the BusinessMirror in a phone interview.
He said consumers will only have to pay the current UCME rate of P0.0709/kWh until the Napocor-Spug fully recover its fuel costs and foreign-exchange payments. The current rate is exclusive of the true cost generation rate (TCGR) of P0.0454/kWh.
To date, Napocor-Spug collects a UCME of P0.1163/kWh from consumers.
Napocor-Spug said the P0.0709/kWh provisional authority only covers about 24 percent of the total applied UCME adjustment of P17.1 billion.
Napocor-Spug is mandated under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, or Epira to provide power generation and its associated power delivery systems in areas that are not connected to the transmission system in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.
Napocor-Spug operates 157 power plants with a combined capacity of almost 200 megawatts in far-flung islands that are not connected to any of the main grids. source
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