Transco seeking P0.278 FiT allowance in 2019
By Lenie Lectura – July 31, 2018
from Business Mirror
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.
