By Lenie Lectura - July 31, 2018
THE National Transmission Corp.
(Transco) is seeking a feed-in-tariff allowance (FiT-All) of P0.2780 per
kilowatt-hour for 2019, lower than its 2018 application of P0.2932 per
kWh but higher than current rate of P0.2563 cents per kWh.
In its 24-page application filed
with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), Transco asked the commission to
issue a provisional authority to collect the FiT-All of P0.2780 per kWh
effective January 2019 pending hearing on the merits of its application.
FiT-All is billed to all
on-grid electricity consumers, which appears as a separate line item in
power distributors’ bills. The amount is meant to cover payments to
renewable-energy (RE) developers who are assured of a fixed rate per kWh
for electricity generated by their projects over a period of 20 years.
Transco said its FiT-All 2019
application is based on the full Department of Energy (DOE) list of RE
projects.
Consumers started paying the 2017
FiT-All rate of P0.2563 only in June this year. For 2018 Transco sought a
FiT-All rate of P0.2932 per kWh. This is still pending with the ERC.
Transco is the administrator of the
FiT-All fund. It manages the FiT-All rate used to pay the eligible RE
developers under the FiT system.
Transco said in its application the
FiT-All fund by the end of the billing and payment cycle for 2018 would
still have a deficit of P3,652,998,330.77.
The deficit was brought about by the
delay in the approval of Transco’s application by the ERC. Transco files its
FiT-All rate application yearly. It also said payment due to
RE developers accumulated in part as the DOE increased the installation target
for solar- power projects to 500 megawatts from 50 MW.
“Consequently, there were more RE
developers that billed Transco,” Transco President Melvin Matibag said.
Matibag said the backlog in payments
owed to RE developers was caused by a combination of factors not attributable
to Transco.
“We are very much concerned and we
are doing our best to resolve the issue. We are also looking for other options
to address the backlog,” he said. “With the ERC approval of 2017 FiT-All, we
can somehow address the backlog on the payment of FiT-All. We want to help both
consumers and RE developers not to be burdened by reason of the delay in paying
the FiT.”
Matibag was referring to earlier
proposals to ask financial assistance from the World Bank or the Asian
Infrastructure Investment Bank to be able to pay RE developers.
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