The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) is seeking to recover approximately Php 87.7 billion from two major projects completed this year.
In a report by Philippine Star, this request came after the completion of the Php 20.9-billion Mariveles-Hermosa-San Jose 500-kilovolt (kV) facility and the Php 67-billion Cebu-Negros-Panay (CNP) 230-kV backbone project.
NGCP invested Php 87.9 billion in these transmission line projects, but the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has only approved the recovery of less than one percent of the total costs, or Php 201.78 million.
To this, NGCP spokesperson Atty. Cynthia Alabanza expressed hope that regulators would allow the recovery of these expenditures.
To date, NGCP has only collected Php 25.78 million from this project. Meanwhile, the grid operator has recovered Php 176 million for the CNP project.
Additionally, Alabanza addressed the misconception that NGCP is collecting charges for unused projects, clarifying that both projects are fully operational.
She also urged the ERC to act on NGCP’s petition for overdue recoveries without burdening consumers.
Meanwhile, ERC Chairman and CEO Monalisa Dimalanta stated that NGCP has included the unrecovered amounts in its fourth regulatory period (4RP) reset filing, which is still subject to ERC evaluation.
Some costs will extend into the fifth regulatory period (5RP), given the recent completion of these projects.
The reset processes for the 4RP and 5RP span the periods from 2016 to 2020 and 2021 to 2025, respectively, following the previous reset, which covered the 2010 to 2015 timeframe.
