ERC asks Meralco to validate costs of power suppliers
By Alena Mae S. Flores – February 13, 2024, 8:20 pm
from manilastandard.net
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on Tuesday asked Manila Electric Co. to validate the costs of power suppliers before passing them to consumers.
It renewed its call on distribution utilities (DUs), including Meralco, to remain diligent in validating costs being imposed by generation companies.
The ERC, in a letter to Meralco dated Feb. 12, 2024, urged the distributor to complete the validation to justify the rate adjustment during the month.
“On the basis of the foregoing, we are constrained from giving any clearance for the recovery of such costs if Meralco itself has not completed its validation or provided the results of such validation to the commission. Pending Meralco’s validation of the basis of such charges, passing on of such costs to the consumers may be premature,” ERC chairperson and chief executive Monalisa Dimalanta said.
The ERC said that as a regulatory body, it is committed to upholding transparency and protecting the consumers.
It said all DUs are mandated to exercise prudence in passing on fuel costs to shield the Filipino consumers from bearing undue financial burdens and ensure that charges are reasonable, uninflated, fairly computed and consistent with their obligation to supply electricity in the least cost manner.
Meralco recently announced that power rates will go up by PP0.5738 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in the February billing owing to higher generation charges from power supply agreements (PSAs) and independent power producers (IPPs), which went up by P0.4552 or to P7.1020 per kWh from P6.6468 last month.
It said the charges from IPPs spiked by P1.4764 per kWh on higher fuel costs of Sta. Rita and San Lorenzo power plants of First Gas Power Corp. This resulted from the plants’ use of imported LNG, which is more expensive than Malampaya’s indigenous gas.
“In recent decisions issued by the ERC involving pass-through generation charges, the ERC reminds all distribution utilities that their duty does not end when electric power is supplied and the charges have been collected,” Dimalanta said.
