Higher electricity rates for 84 months

Manila, Philippines – Energy regulators have officially released on Monday a ruling that allows the grid operator to recover from consumers P30 billion in investments retroactively.

In its decision dated April 11, but released only on Monday (July 7), the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) directed the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to “[c]ollect the computed total under-recovery amounting to P28,296.88 billion,” over 84 months.

The ERC decision means higher monthly electricity bills for consumers, equivalent to an additional tariff of P0.0384 per kilowatt-hour, according to the document.

The regulator said the computed rate adjustments must be reflected “as a separate line item in the bill of customers during the collect period using the phrase “Under-recovery 2016-2022.”

The 2016-2022 represents the regulatory period covered by the ERC’s deliberations during which it decides whether to reset the rates to let the NGCP recover its operational expenses like capital expenditures to operate viably.

In April, the energy regulator said it had concluded the review but no document was released yet at the time.

Two of the five-man ERC panel had a dissenting opinion: ERC Chairperson and CEO Monalisa Dimalanta and Commissioner Catherine Maceda.

NewsWatch Plus Business Anchor Lois Calderon contributed to this story.