ERC grants NGCP P5.5-B capex for 2017

by Myrna M. Velasco – March 20, 2017, 10:22 AM

from Manila Bulletin

Transmission firm National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) had been provisionally granted lean capital expenditures of P5.5 billion for this year, giving focus only on highly critical projects.

The provisional 2017 CAPEX was part of the P113.4-billion capex that the company has petitioned for with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), covering the stretch of four years, or until year 2020.

“NGCP’s application covered capex for calendar years 2017 to 2020 with a proposed total cost of some P113.4 billion, but the ERC only provisionally approved the capex for this year amounting to P5.5 billion,” the industry regulator has emphasized in its statement to the media.

ERC Chairman Jose Vicente B. Salazar said “the Commission needs to study further the propriety of the capex projects and their corresponding costs for the years 2018 up to 2020.”

He stressed “there is no urgency to grant approval of those projects which can be done upon completion of the public hearings,” while also emphasizing that there is a “need to establish and ensure that the projects are indeed necessary so as not to unduly burden the consumers with exorbitant power rates.”

The ERC qualified that the approval covered 58 projects, out of the 65 projects in NGCP’s list on its five-year rolling capex program.

The power industry regulator indicated that the projects already given go-signal for implementation were those found “to be urgent and crucial to ensure continuous, efficient and reliable supply of electricity.”