NGCP seeks to recover rehab costs

MANILA, Philippines - The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) seeks to recover the costs of rehabilitation and repair of its facilities incurred as a result of force majeure events such as bombing incidents and typhoons.

In a filing before the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), NGCP sought to recover costs it incurred because of a bombing incident on its facilities in Mindanao and two destructive typhoons that hit the country in October last year.

“On Sept. 1 and 26, 2013, NGCP’s transmission assets and other related facilities in the provinces of Maguindanao and Cotabato were damaged due to the bombings perpetrated by lawless elements, respectively,” NGCP said.

On Oct. 11-13, Typhoon Santi entered the Philippine area of responsibility with maximum winds of 150 kilometers per hour and gustiness of 185 kph. Due to its intensity and heavy rainfall, NGCP’s transmission assets and other related facilities in the North Luzon area were damaged, it also said in its application.

Typhoon Vinta, meanwhile, hit in Oct. 31 and also damaged NGCP’s transmission assets and other related facilities.

As a result, NGCP said it spent P3.2 million due to the sabotage incident, P2.6 million for landslide damage as a result of heavy rains, P2.3 million due to Santi and P1.6 million due to Vinta for a total cost of P9.8 million.

“NGCP proposes the force majeure pass-through amount as additional network charges starting in the billing period of October 2014 to December 2015 or until such time that the amount incurred is fully recovered,” it said.