TransCo owes P4b to renewable plants
by Alena Mae S. Flores – February 06, 2017 at 08:55 pm
from Manila Standard Today
The total unpaid obligations of National Transmission Corp. to renewable energy developers under the feed-in tariff regime have reached over P4 billion, an official said Monday.
“Yes, we are delayed because the P0.1240 per kilowatt-hour FIT-All (feed-in tariff allowance) is not enough. We are paying dues of about five months ago. More or less P4 billion as of now,” TransCo feed in tariff team head Dina Dizon.
TransCo president Melvin Matibag said the company did not obtain approval of the Energy Regulatory Commission on the feed-in tariff allowance, or the per kilowatt-hour rate charged to consumers for using renewable energy sopurces.
“No FIT yet but yes we have a backlog (on the payment to developers),” Matibag said.
TransCo has a pending new FIT-All petition of P0.2291 per kWh, which should have been effective starting this year.
TransCo is currently collecting P0.1240 per kWh from consumers under the FIT-Allowance line item in the power bills. The rate will be increased to P0.2291 per kWh, if approved by the ERC.
The amount totaling totaling P16.488 billion, including under-recoveries in 2016, represents payments to eligible renewable energy developers.
TransCo also asked the ERC to make the approval of the rate permanent, “or in the alternative, such other amount as may be found by the Commission to be consistent with the FIT-All guidelines and on the basis of new and updated information not heretofore available to the applicant at the time of the present application.”
TransCo primarily relied on the most updated list of renewable energy projects that were projected to be eligible to the feed-in tariff system in 2014 to 2018, as provided by the Energy Department.
TransCo also tapped its own database containing historical information and the available submission of the developers on actual or forecast generation.
The state-owned firm added the department’s list provided the best estimate of the timing of the renewable energy plants but it did not give a preemptive right to the identified projects to be counted under the final feed-in tariff eligible projects, nor did it limit the payment to these projects.
The company limited the determination of the 2017 FIT-All rate to include eligible capacities up to the installation targets set by the department, namely 500 megawatts for solar, 400 MW for wind, 250 MW for hydro and 250 MW for biomass.
