State-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. announced over the weekend it will cease collecting P0.0543 per kilowatt-hour from consumers under the universal charge for stranded contract costs effective February.
PSALM said the move “is a relief to power consumers all over the country.” This will translate into a reduction of P5.43 for every 100 kWh of monthly electricity consumption.
“PSALM’s authority to collect this particular UC-SCC amounting to P0.0543 per kwh is hinged on fully recovering the amount of P5,117,060,647.80, which was the specific amount that was approved by the ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission),” PSALM president Irene Garcia said.
Garcia said PSALM ‘s calculations showed that once it collected the UC-SCC in the January billings, the agency would be able to recover the amount “and so therefore we need to cease collecting the UC-SCC amounting to 5.43 cents per kwh.”
“This is consistent with the specific ERC decision that had approved this particular UC-SCC amounting to P0.0543. Thus, last Thursday, we instructed the collecting entities to stop including the UC-SCC of P0.0543 per kWh starting the February billings,” Garcia said.
PSALM said it started advising electricity distribution and collecting utilities to terminate the implementation of the UC-SCC.
The April 10, 2019 decision of the ERC allowed PSALM to recover over P5 billion through the UC-SCC.
PSALM said the total amount should have been fully recovered in the January 2020 billing period.Alena Mae S. Flores
The Electric Power Industry Reform Act defines UC-SCC as the “excess of the contracted cost of electricity under eligible contracts over the actual selling price of the contracted energy.”
The UC-SCC charges aim to pay the remaining financial obligations that the government incurred due to the construction of new power plants to alleviate the power shortages in the 1990s and early 2000.