ANGELES CITY- Electric bills in all areas served by the National Transmission Corp. (TransCo) will be higher starting this month after the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) authorized it to charge additional P0.0733 per kilowatt hour (kWh) from all on grid consumers connected to any distribution utility (DU), which covers all parts of the country, including Metro Manila.
In a hardly-noticed advisory via internet, the Pampanga Electric Cooperative II (Pelco II), a DU covering most of the highly populated cities and towns of Pampanga, said the increased rates are to take effect this month.
The higher rates are expected to reflect on bills starting next month.
The notice said this means that TransCo, the fund administrator of the so-called Feed-In Tariff Allowance or FITAll and through its concessionaire, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), will now charge P0.2536 kWh starting this month from its former rate of P0.1830 kWh.
“This is based on ERC Case No. 2016- 192 RC dated Feb. 27, 2018,” the notice said.
The notice explained that FIT-All is a charge of DU’s from consumers covered by electric cooperatives, private DU’s and other local government utilities.
The charge is the turned over to the TransCo which, in turn, would distribute it to qualified Renewable Energy Developers (RED).
“The purpose is track the development and promote the renewable energy industry such as hydro, biomass, wind, solar, among other such means.,” the notice said.
Transco is a government agency created under Republic Act No. 9136, otherwise known as the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001.
Its website said since March 1, 2003, TransCo operated and managed the power transmission system that links power plants to the electric distribution utilities nationwide.
The same law mandated the privatization of TransCo through an outright sale or management concession agreement.
Following a public bidding conducted in December 2007, the TransCo concession was awarded to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), which eventually secured a congressional franchise to operate the transmission network.
