Regulation fees bulk of ERC’s high revenue goal

BY LENIE LECTURA – SEPTEMBER 5, 2022
from Business Mirror

THE Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is projecting revenues to hit P3.429 billion until 2025.

The agency told lawmakers last week that this year’s target revenue is set at P970.189 million. For 2023, 2024 and 2025, the projected numbers are P812.496 million, P814.144 million and P832.689 million, respectively.

As of June 30 this year, the ERC’s total collection stood at P214.535 million. This is equivalent to 22.11 percent of the total revenue target. Bulk of the ERC’s collection will come from supervision and regulation fees (SRF), which will be collected by the end of September 2022.

The SRF makes up 72 percent of the agency’s revenue; permits and licenses, 22 percent; meter testing fees, five percent; and, other income, one percent.

The projected SRF to be collected every year until 2025 is P700 million.

The agency also presented its goals for next year. These are restructuring for enhanced efficiency in government, least cost pricing towards affordability, supporting the quest for energy security, adopting regulatory framework for new technologies to support energy security and advancing consumer empowerment.

Under the least cost pricing goal, the ERC said it will initiate, together with the Department of Energy (DOE), initiate a review of the Competitive Selection Process (CSP) policy to include, among others, technical standards and pricing parameters.

It will also review and update parameters of distribution utilities’ compliance with “least cost” supply obligation; review and revise framework on universal charge-missionary electrification and recovery of system loss; pursue regulatory reset exercise for distribution utilities; and, complete regulatory reset for National Grid Corp. of the Philippines.

Also for next year, the ERC is targeting to promulgate the rules on the offshore wind technology, rules on net–metering for off-grid, establish the regulatory framework for energy storage systems and electric vehicle and provide technical and service performance standards for micro-grid system.

The agency is asking for a budget of roughly P1.038 billion for 2023, higher than the approved budget of P879.163 million this year and in the previous year’s approved budget of nearly P1.028 billion.

As of June this year, the agency has utilized 36.43 percent of its budget this year.

It has issued 701 decisions and orders from January to June this year. It aims to decide on 1,402 more cases in the second half of the year.