Wednesday, February 28, 2007 Power rates in RP to go down
ELECTRICITY rates of the National Power Corporation (NPC) will drop further after the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) approved its petition for rate adjustments on the foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations under the Incremental Currency Exchange Rate Adjustment (Icera).
In two orders dated Feb. 7, 2007, the Napocor was told its current rate by P.0430 per kilowatt hour (kwh) for users in Luzon, P0.3151 kwh for those in the Visayas and P0.0045 kwh for those in Mindanao for the first month of implementation.
ERC chairman Rodolfo Albaño said the incremental fuel and independent power producer (IPP) costs (commonly known as Gram or Generation Rate Adjustment Mechanism] and foreign exchange rates caused the reductions.
"The public had been expecting a reduction in its rates as the Philippine currency exchange rate gets better, however the directive does not reflect yet the improvement as it covers earlier billing periods," Albaño added.
Deferred fuel and IPP costs refer to the increase or decrease (movements) in the fuel and purchase power costs portion of the approved generation charges for
Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao Grids while deferred foreign exchange fluctuation costs are the changes in currency exchange.
Icera is the cost recovery adjustment mechanism for changes in the foreign exhange, which has no impact on the utility's income.
The Napocor said the deferred fuel and foreign exchange adjustments are allowed pass-through charges.
The provisionally approved rates of Napocor will take effect starting with the Feb. 26 to March 25, 2007 billing period, Albaño said, adding that Napocor customers will be charged a lower rate until such period specified in the ERC orders. (MSN/Sunnex)
