THE National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) is hoping to recover P87.7 billion from its two transmission projects upon the completion of its rate reset reviews.
“We want to emphasize that the NGCP is ready to serve and build (transmission) lines that are needed but our only appeal is to be able to recover (the costs),” NGCP Spokesperson Cynthia P. Alabanza told a media briefing, partly in Filipino, on Wednesday.
The grid operator is seeking to recover the costs it incurred in building the P67-billion Cebu-Negros-Panay (CNP) 230-kilovolt (kV) backbone and the P20.9-billion Mariveles-Hermosa-San Jose (MHSJ) 500-kV transmission line.
For a total of P201.78 million, NGCP said it was only allowed to recover P176 million for the CNP project and P25.78 million for the MHSJ project.
The CNP transmission line was energized in April, strengthening the link between three major islands in the Visayas.
The NGCP recently energized MHSJ transmission at its full capacity of 8,000 megawatts.
Ms. Alabanza said that they were only able to recover a portion of the costs of the projects due to delays in completing the rate reset review.
The regular rate-reset process is usually a “forward-looking” exercise that requires the regulated entity to submit forecasted expenditures and proposed projects over a five-year regulatory period.
The fourth regulatory period covers the years 2016 to 2020, while the fifth regulatory period covers the years 2021 to 2025.
Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Chairperson Monalisa C. Dimalanta said that the NGCP already included the amounts in their fourth regulatory period reset filing which is for the evaluation of the regulator.
“Although there are also some costs that will traverse into the (fifth regulatory period) considering the completion of these projects just recently,” Ms. Dimalanta said in a Viber message.
The ERC is targeting to complete the fourth regulatory period by next month, she said.
Meanwhile, Ms. Alabanza said that they are not seeing alert notices so far for this year.
As of June 25, the Luzon grid was placed over red and yellow alerts for 11 days and 31 days, respectively.
Red alerts were raised over the Visayas grid for eight days and yellow alerts for 26 days. The Mindanao grid experienced yellow alerts for two days. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera
