Electricity bills may go down in February after the energy regulatory board provisionally approved a revenue cap application from power transmission firm National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
In a press release, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) said that NGCP was set to earn a maximum annual revenue (MAR) of P46.3 billion for 2011, as per ERC's provisional approval last January 17.
With this, ERC expects NGCP's indicative equivalent monthly transmission charge for its customers to decrease by an overall average of P2.64 per kilowatt (kW). This translates to a lowering of charges from P366.92/kW in 2010 down to P364.27/kW in 2011. NGCP's reduced transmission charge will become visible in its January 2011 billing.
ERC also said that the indicative average monthly transmission charge for 2011 includes the Performance Incentive Scheme reward (PIS), power delivery service (PDS) charge, system operator charge, and metering service provider charge.
On a per grid basis, ERC said that the transmission firm's Luzon customers will be seeing an average monthly reduction of P2.38/kW, while there will be an average reduction of P0.09/kW in the Visayas and P6.61/kW in Mindanao.
According to GMA News, the Henry Sy-led concessionaire transmits power through its 20,236 circuit kilometers of transmission lines, which have a total capacity of 24,607 megavolt amperes. These lines are used by local generators such as Meralco to distribute electricity to consumers throughout the country.
Lower bills
ERC will still have to calculate the final impact of the revised transmission charges. However, consumers are deemed to start reaping benefits in February, according to BusinessWorld.
BusinessWorld quoted a text message from NGCP spokesperson Cynthia Perez-Albanza, saying "We have yet to discuss internally how the maximum average revenue approval affect our rates."
Meanwhile, the news agency also quoted ERC executive director Francis Saturnino Juan, who said that the implementation will be reflected in the January billing period "so distribution utilities and end-users may feel it next month."
In November last year, ERC issued the final determination of the MAR of NGCP for the third regulatory period covering 2011 to 2015. The next month, NGCP filed its MAR application for 2011.
ERC said that they have yet to issue the final decision on the transmission firm's 2011 MAR, as NGCP's application will still undergo public hearings where interested parties may participate.
NGCP's transmission rates are based on the Performance-Based Rate-Setting (PBS) scheme, an internationally accepted rate-setting method. ERC-promulgated guidelines secure its implementation.
"We note that the PBR scheme adopted for the transmission sector is beginning to reflect a favorable impact in terms of price of electricity consumers brought about by the lower indicative transmission charges for 2011 and onwards," Juan said in the statement.
With the regulatory body's approval, "NGCP will aim to be more efficient in its operations and aspire to deliver better quality power transmission services," he added.
"The ERC is happy to note that electricity consumers will be enjoying a reduction in transmission charges in the next five years beginning 2011," Zambotimes quoted ERC chairperson Zenaida Ducut.
REACTION:
"Naa ra man diay na. Whew. Finally," these were the words I have uttered upon reading the article above. I mean, we were already being used to prices getting higher each time those producers got their chance. It’s sometimes in a week, in a month and even worst, in just days, prices were already again higher than the usual. I mean, finally something worth reading, something ear-candy to hear of a news, was being presented to us because in these past few days, it has been all about the Dominguez brothers and the carnapping and the killing issue and such.
This is one great of a news as 2011 opened. I can now say that there are actually people in the government who are actually doing their job. Bravo!
The article basically talks about the provisionally-approved revenue for National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) for calendar year 2011 in the amount of PhP46, 284.78 Million given by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC). With this, the indicative equivalent monthly transmission charge to its customers will go down by an overall average of PhP2.64/kW (PhP366.92/kW in 2010 vs. PhP364.27/kW in 2011). Which, on per grid basis, the average monthly reduction will be PhP2.38/kW for Luzon; PhPO.09/kW for Visayas and PhP6.61/kW for Mindanao. NGCP is said to implement the reduced transmission charge visibly in its January 2011 billing.
With all these being said, basically electricity consumers will merrily enjoy a very visible decrease in the price of their electric bills. It is also noted that the said reduction of transmission charges will have a continuing decrease from 2011 until 2015. Not bad, ERC and NGCP.
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) noted and pointed out that the NGCP can still operate efficiently even with a lower operating budget. This is also one of those points that caught my attention. I mean if this is even possible now, how come they have not come up with this strategy or idea before? People would already be happily enjoying the soon-to-be decreased rates in electric bills. We actually wouldn’t be suffering from high electric bills at all if this was proposed long ago pa.
Nonetheless, this is one way of seeing that there are people in the government seats that are actually thinking on how to help the people of this country not to suffer from any more distress. Aye aye guys. Keep up the good job.
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