NGCP seeks refund of P392 M from power barge operator

Manila Bulletin 
By Myrna M. Velasco 
Published: April 19, 2013
To cut down pass-on cost of ancillary service (AS) charges to its customers, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has formally lodged its calculation and sought refund of the P392 million “excess charges” of Therma Marine Inc. (TMI) for its power barges in Mindanao.
The ‘excess charges,’ according to the grid operator, accrued for the periods February 2010 to February 2012 for Power Barge 118; and March 2010 to March 2012 for Power Barge 117.
“The submission is in compliance with the ERC’s order directing NGCP to compute TMI’s AS costs to pave the way for the latter’s refund to customers for the resulting overbilling,” NGCP said.
Ancillary services account for the power supply necessary to support the transmission of capacity and energy from resources to loads while maintaining reliable operation of the electricity system.
Early on, TMI already sounded off willingness to refund NGCP so it can also reflect such as reduction on its AS billings. It is expected that the refund amount will be flowed back to Mindanao consumers.
The Aboitiz firm indicated that it “wants the refund process as early as possible”; hence, it has not contested anymore the ERC ruling.
The ‘overbilling’ had in fact resulted in the modified ruling of the ERC; which at first allowed higher capital recovery fee (CRF) for the TMI power barges. Consequently, these were reflected on the pass-on charges to Mindanao end-users.
The regulatory body’s decision reduced capital recovery cost for PB 117 to P0.5564 per kilowatt hour (kWh) in 2010 and P0.5302 per kWh in 2011. It came from a higher base of P0.7768 per kWh. Similarly, the CRF for PB 118 was slashed from P0.7768 per kWh to P0.5150 per kWh in 2010; and P0.4912 per kWh in 2011.
NGCP, in a statement to the media, has noted that this is one of the measures it has been working on to bring down the AS charges being billed to ratepayers.
The company also procured AS supply of which costs had been lower by 40-percent, but these are still pending for approval by the ERC.   source