Transco agrees to settle P2-b debt with renewable power plants
By Alena Mae S. Flores – January 01, 2019 at 08:40 pm
from manilastandard.net
State-run National Transmission Corp. said it will pay more than P2 billion worth of feed-in tariffs to renewable energy developers this month.
“We have reduced significantly the backlog of FIT liabilities to RE developers,” TransCo president Melvin Matibag said.
TransCo previously had a backlog of about P4 billion, but it was able to receive approval for its 2017 feed-in tariff allowance application from the Energy Regulatory Commission, allowing it to collect from consumers higher FIT rates.
“We will have an outstanding [backlog] of about P2.3 billion after our payment on Jan. 5,” said Dina Dizon, head of TransCo’s feed-in tariff team.
TransCo is set to pay P851 million on Jan. 5 and another P1.6 billion to P1.7 billion on or before Jan. 25.
TransCo manages the FIT-All fund under the FIT system. It is an incentive scheme that gives solar, wind, biomass and small hydro plants priority to connections to grid.
ERC approved TransCo’s 2017 FIT-All application, granting the state-run firm an authority to collect P0.2563 per kWh, an increase of P0.0733 per kWh from the previous rate of P0.1830 per kWh.TransCo also has a pending FIT-All application of P0.2932 per kWh for 2018 and 2019.
The company filed a petition with the ERC to collect from consumers P0.2780 per kHh for 2019, higher than the current approved rate of P0.2563 per kWh.
TransCo asked ERC to allow it “to timely implement the FIT-All rate of P0.2780 per kWh effective January 2019 without prejudice to the final and actual rate pending the final disposition of its present application.”
“The grant of a provisional authority will allow TransCo to perform its duties to make a timely payment of the FIT rate to RE developers to which they are entitled, thereby allowing their continued operations,” it said.
TransCo said that as 2019 would be the last year of the offering of tFITs, it based its application on the Department of Energy’s list of renewable energy projects.
“Our projections are lower [for 2019]. The reason why we are also trying to bring it down is because we are mindful of the plight of the consumers,” Matibag said earlier.
ERC granted the following tariff rates for renewable energy projects: solar 1 at P9.68 per kWh, solar 2 at P8.69 per kWh, wind 1 at P8.53 per kWh, wind 2 at P7.40 per kWh, biomass at P6.63 per kWh and hydro at P5.90 per kWh.
“We are looking forward to the immediate resolution of our 2018 FIT all rate application,” Matibag said.
