Published February 12, 2018, 10:00
PM By Myrna
M. Velasco
With the suspended commissioners of
the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) temporarily back at their offices, the
National Transmission Corporation (TransCo) is expecting that the rate hike on
the feed-in-tariff allowance (FIT-All) to P0.2932 per kilowatt hour (kWh) will
already be acted upon by the regulatory body.
That will be an increase from what
is currently billed at P0.1830 per kWh, basically an increase of P0.1102 per
kWh in the FIT-All charge, a separate item in the electric bills.
As noted by TransCo President Melvin
A. Matibag, prior to the suspension of the four commissioners, there was
already a commitment then to approve the FIT-All rate hike as early as January
this year.
He noted that with the delay in
approvals, their backlog in FIT payments to RE developers remained at a
whopping R7.0 billion plus.
“We based the FIT payments on
billings, and the last payments we’ve made were still June, 2017,” the TransCo
chief executive noted.
Beyond the principal amount that had
been swelling on unsettled dues, Matibag indicated that interest charges have
also been escalating – already reaching P590 million as of the latest
reckoning.
He explained that TransCo has a
system when it comes to payment of FIT to RE project developers, and that makes
the company’s processes strategic and without any leeway for “political
accommodation or giving favors to particular project sponsors.”
Matibag asserted that, for instance,
if he will ever attempt “to insert any project developer to collect, there
would be problem because that will show in the system.”
In the higher FIT rate application,
the total collection targeted by TransCo for 2018 will hover at P28.058
billion, inclusive of FIT differential on generation charge of RE facilities
for calendar year 2018 amounting to P15.978 billion and FIT under-recovery in
2017 of P8.668 billion.
TransCo intended to start passing on
the adjusted FIT-All charges in the consumers electric bills starting January
this year.
It stressed in its filing with the
ERC that “the grant of provisional authority will allow TransCo to perform its
duties to make a timely payment of the FIT rate to RE developers to which they
are entitled, thereby allowing their continued operations.
But the ERC said there is no
timeframe yet on when they will decide on TransCo’s FIT-All adjustment
petition.
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