ERC issues order suspending collection of FIT-All
BY LENIE LECTURA – NOVEMBER 29, 2022
from Business Mirror
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has released an order suspending the collection of the Feed-in-Tariff Allowance (FIT-All) from December until February next year.
“In light of the rising level of inflation and cost of living affecting millions of Filipino households, the government is introducing remedies to ease inflation pressure on its citizens, including those that address the ability to pay for the rising cost of electricity due to external pressures,” the ERC said in a statement it posted on its website Monday.
The FIT-All is a uniform charge billed to all on-grid electricity consumers, reflected as a separate component in monthly electricity bills, to cover payments to renewable energy developers who are assured of a fixed rate per kWh for electricity generated by their projects over 20 years.
The current FIT-ALL rate is at P0.0364 per kilowatt hour (kWh).
“The Commission hereby resolves to approve and adopt a temporary suspension in the collection o the FIT-All for a period of three months, starting December 2022 until the February 2023 billing months,” the ERC said.
It will review in January the status of the FIT-ALL fund to determine if the collection can still be suspended.
As of November 7, the FIT-All fund stood at P4,245,136.75. The ERC said the average monthly cost recovery revenue (CRR) collection from January to November this year is P1,795,344,358.07 while the monthly average disbursements from the FIT-All fund for the same period is P2,041,946,215.36.
“The FIT-All fund as of November 7, inclusive of the CRR collections in November 2022, shows a healthy fund balance that can sufficiently cover the FIT-All payment requirements for three month, assuming the same CRR collection,” said the ERC.
The collections are then placed in the FIT-All fund managed by the National Transmission Corp., which, in turn, pays the accredited renewable energy developers.
The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), for its part, said it would abide by the ERC order. It also said that the suspension of FIT-All will benefit the consumers.
Meanwhile, Spectrum, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Meralco, has been tapped to install a two-megawatt peak (MWp) solar photovoltaic (PV) system at Anglo Watsons’ Glass Inc.’s manufacturing plant in Laguna.
Under the agreement, the unit of Emperador, Inc. has partnered with Spectrum for the former’s groundbreaking solar rooftop project that will power the company’s glass nearly six-hectare facility located inside the Silangan Industrial Park in Calamba.
Expected for completion in February 2023, the rooftop solar project will allow Anglo Watsons to generate approximately 2.5 million kilowatt-hours of clean energy per year.
“We are very happy to partner with Meralco as we move towards more sustainable business operations that are aligned with the goal of Alliance Global Group, Inc. to be fully reliant on renewable energy in the coming years,” said Anglo Watsons President Alec Tempongko.
Anglo Watsons manufactures flint glass bottles for Emperador’s liquor products, including Emperador Light, Andy Player Whisky, Zabana Rum, and The Bar. The company produces about 150 million bottles a year in its Laguna plant, equivalent to as much as 11 million cases of bottles annually.
Through the solar project, Anglo Watsons pivots Emperador’s bigger sustainability push that entails, among others, the gradual shift to clean energy to support its business operations.
