The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has vowed to complete a ruling this month on the remaining capital expenditure projects of transmission operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) that were excluded from the 4th regulatory period.
“We will discuss and approve the remaining capex that were not included in the fourth,” ERC chairman Francis Saturnino Juan said.
“Some were included in the fifth, but if there is a need for us to issue a decision on these pending capex projects so they can already be started by NGCP, then we will do that,” said Juan.
Juan said the ERC had received a letter from the Department of Energy on the critical NGCP capex projects that need the commission’s attention.
“So that’s what we’re prioritizing also,” Juan said, adding, “You’ll know within the month if we can achieve the target that we address, which is NGCP.”
The previous ERC leadership had approved a fixed rate of P0.0384 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to be implemented for 84 months, or until P28 billion in under-recoveries is fully collected.
The ERC also allowed NGCP to recover an increase of P6.62 billion, raising the previously approved maximum allowable revenue from P51.47 billion to P58.10 billion. This translates to an anticipated increase of P0.0629 per kWh.
The ERC approval is part of NGCP’s 4th Regulatory Period (RP) Reset, which covers the years 2016 to 2022.
The third reset, which covered 2010 to 2015, took place more than a decade ago. NGCP had sought a maximum allowable revenue of P552.19 billion under the 4th RP but received approval for only P335.79 billion.
NGCP holds the sole and exclusive concession and franchise for the operation of the country’s transmission network, linking power generators and distribution utilities to deliver electricity to power distributors and cooperatives nationwide.
