Napocor seeks recovery of P1.9-B costs

MANILA, Philippines - The National Power Corp. (Napocor) is seeking to recover around P1.9 billion in operational and foreign exchange costs incurred in the delivery of power to off-grid areas in the first six months of 2014.

In separate petitions, the state-run firm is asking the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to approve its 13th application of recovery charges under generation rate adjustment mechanism (GRAM) and incremental currency exchange rate adjustment (ICERA).

GRAM seeks to recover deferred fuel costs and power purchased costs incurred in providing power in Napocor-Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG) areas while ICERA seeks to recover costs on foreign exchange rate fluctuations.

In its GRAM application, Napocor is seeking back P1.893 billion incurred from January to June 2014 to be recovered in two years.

To recover this amount, it proposed to impose additional charges of P2.0627 per kilowatt-hour for off-grid customers in Luzon, P2.3236 per kwh for those in Visayas and P1.4584 per kwh for those in Mindanao.

For ICERA, Napocor is seeking regulatory clearance to recover P8.775 million incurred also from January to June 2014. Recovery is spread over 12 months.

This will translate to an additional charge of P0.0178 per kilowatt-hour in the monthly bills of end-consumers in missionary areas.

Napocor is asking the power regulator to approve these charges “even with the entry of private sector players in a specific SPUG area.”

Under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001, Napocor is mandated to provide power generation and its associated power delivery systems in areas that are not connected to the transmission system, which include remote villages in Mindanao, Palawan and Mindoro.