By Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio, Reporter
THE Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is set to complete the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ (NGCP) transmission rate adjustment next month, the regulatory body’s chief told lawmakers at the House of Representatives on Monday.
“We are at the tail end of the reset for the fourth regulatory period, we have completed all the evaluation,” ERC Chairperson Monalisa C. Dimalanta said during a House legislative franchises hearing.
“We are completing the evaluation… and we expect to issue the final determination by January 2025.”
The ERC conducts a rate reset process for power companies to help ensure that rates are fair for both consumers and power utilities by looking into the proposed project costs and projected expenditures over a five-year regulatory period.
The NGCPs’ fourth regulatory period covers the years 2016 to 2022, which the ERC previously described as “unique because it covers a past period.”
Ms. Dimalanta said there is a possibility that the ERC en banc would increase NGCP’s allowable revenue for the January final determination. “Because of changes… there is now a potential increase in the allowable revenue of NGCP.”
“This is now subject to the final evaluation of the commission,” she added.
The energy regulatory body capped the NGCP’s allowable revenue for the fourth regulatory period to P310.96 billion, 43.84% lower than the P552 billion it requested, according to a draft of the grid operator’s final rate adjustment determination sent by Ms. Dimalanta to BusinessWorld.
The ERC also slashed the NGCP’s requested capital expenditures by 15.89% to about P180 billion from the requested P214.66 billion.
“We hope that due process will be followed, and that prevailing regulatory frameworks, existing laws, all of which have been complied with by the NGCP, would be recognized [for the fourth regulatory period’s final determination],” NGCP Assistant Vice-President and Head of Public Relations Leonor Felipa Cynthia P. Alabanza told reporters after the House hearing.
Meanwhile, the ERC is set to release the NGCP’s fifth regulatory period rates by the second half of 2025, Ms. Dimalanta told BusinessWorld after the House hearing.
“We might be able to do that in the second half of next year. Although I think the proceedings for the fifth regulatory period are almost done,” she said.
NGCP’s fifth regulatory period will cover the years 2023 to 2027.
Also on Monday, lawmakers launched a motu proprio investigation into NGCP’s congressional franchise, citing alleged delays over the grid operator’s infrastructure projects.
Of the 37 transmission projects investigated by the ERC, 34 have faced “unjustified delays,” Ms. Dimalanta told lawmakers.
Ms. Alabanza in response said that NGCP remains “on time for its system impact studies.”