(The Philippine Star) | Updated December 21, 2017 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines —
Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is asking the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC)
to clarify that feed-in tariff (FIT) payments to renewable energy (RE)
developers should be based on meters as these are being charged to consumers.
Meralco said the FIT
allowance (FIT-All) that would be paid to RE developers should be based on
“pertinent, correct and accurate data/information” which should be approved by
the power regulator.
“Meter data is the basis
for payment of FIT rates to FIT-eligible RE developers.
In particular, RE
developers are paid per kilowatt hour (kwh) generated as reflected in their
respective meters. Thus, the accuracy of meter data is crucial when it comes to
determining the appropriate FIT to which RE developers are entitled to,” it
said.
“Hence all meter data
for energy purportedly delivered by RE plants must be counter-checked/verified
for the purposing of ensuring their accuracy before the same are
considered/included in the calculation of amount of FIT-All that would be
approved under the instant application as well as the amount of FIT that will
be paid to RE developers,” Meralco said.
The FIT system details
perks for power developers for a period of 20 years to invest in the more
expensive renewable sector.
Payment to developers
come from the collection of FIT-All,a uniform charge billed to all on-grid
electricity consumers, reflected as a separate component in their monthly
electricity bills.
The National
Transmission Corp. (TransCo) is the administrator of the FIT-All fund.
The ERC is currently
deliberating on TransCo’s application to raise the FIT-All rate to 22 centavos
per kwh from the current 18.3 centavos per kwh approved only last May.
The delay in the
approval of the FIT-All rate has caused a backlog in payments to RE developers.
As of Oct. 5, TransCo has an outstanding balance of P7.5 billion.
To cover the backlog,
TransCo is proposing to borrow the outstanding balance and more from
multilateral lenders like Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and World
Bank.
The proposal to borrow
has been approved in principle by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi and welcomed by
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, TransCo president and CEO Melvin Matibag
said earlier.
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