Published
June 4, 2017, 10:00 PM By Myrna M. Velasco
The Energy Regulatory
Commission (ERC) has extended until July 31 this year the deadline for
state-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) to
file its petitions for universal charges (UC) – primarily intended to recoup
costs on stranded liabilities that will have a “rate hike effect” on the
consumers’ electric bills.
Stretched deadline
until June 13 this year had likewise been granted to National Power Corporation
(NPC) for its filing of 2018 UC-missionary electrification (UCME) requirements
that would be funneled as subsidy to its Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG)
service domains.
While granting the
timeframe extension, the industry regulator has yet to render ruling also on
the R105 billion worth of pending UC cost recoveries of the company on stranded
debts (SD) and stranded contract costs.
In a resolution
promulgated by the regulatory body last May 16, it explicitly stipulated that
“PSALM is authorized to file its petition for SCC and SD portion of the UC for
calendar year 2016 and update its implementation of 2007-2010 of NPC-SCC
portion of the UC under the true-up adjustment on or before July 31, 2017.”
A “true-up” would refer
to the mechanism permitted under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA)
for UC charges to be adjusted corresponding to the applied level of cost
recoveries.
ERC Officer-in-Charge
Alfredo S. Non said “we have resolved to accede to the requests of PSALM and
NPC-SPUG to enable them to complete all the necessary documents to support
their respective petitions.” The prescribed deadline for UC filings had been
set March 15 every year.
The regulatory body
indicated that both NPC and PSALM communicated “that they were constrained to
request for an additional period of time within which to submit the required
petitions since the original deadline is no longer feasible for them
considering the availability of the certified financial statements which will
serve as the bases in calculating subject availments.”
For its 2016 filing of
UC, PSALM Officer-in-Charge Lourdes S. Alzona indicated that they are still
finalizing calculation and would be adhering to required submissions to the
Commission on Audit.
PSALM’s UC cost
recoveries already swelled to a whopping P105 billion as of last year –
aggregated for both its stranded debts and stranded contract costs.
Over P35 billion had
been applied for as cost recoveries for stranded contract costs, with true-up
adjustments from years 2011 to 2015. Additionally, the petition for UC-stranded
debts had already risen to P70 billion, as culled from PSALM’s pending
petitions.
The company previously
noted that equivalent cost recoveries for the UC-SCC will be P0.03 per kWh over
four years; and P0.06 per kWh for the UC on stranded debts.
It was similarly
emphasized that if the UC cost recovery applications would be approved, this
will cut down the level of the power sector’s stranded liabilities currently
estimated at P245 billion until the end of PSALM’s corporate life in 2026.
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