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Manila Bulletin devider Business devider ERC gets record-high budget

ERC gets record-high budget

Published Nov 12, 2022 10:17 am

A record-high 2023 budget has been accorded to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to enable the regulatory body to strengthen its mandate to implement a "rate reset" or rate adjustment of regulated power utilities, primarily the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), as well as the private distribution utilities (DUs), and electric cooperatives.

The ERC vouched that its P1.127 billion budget for 2023 has been the highest it ever secured since its establishment in 2001 after the restructuring of the country’s power sector.

The regulatory body noted that its budget hike is intended to “equip the ERC with resources to complete its priority projects to increase transparency and accountability in the power sector.”

Due to scant budget, the ERC, for years, agonized over lack of manpower that could support it in carrying out tasks vested upon it as regulator of an industry commanding billions of dollars of investments.

On the tariff reset that it will enforce for system operator NGCP, the ERC will be on a catch-up mode on updating its regulated transmission charges because that had not been updated since 2016.

Under this administration, ERC Chairperson Monalisa C. Dimalanta had given word that the updating of NGCP charges will likely be completed by early next year and it is hoped that this will result in lower electricity rates for Filipino consumers.

For the DUs and electric cooperatives, the delays in their tariff-setting and the cost-mismatch on the actual electricity bills is seen as a disservice to the consumers.

“The reset activities will allow ERC to revisit the authorized rates of the NGCP and distribution utilities/electric cooperatives to ensure that what is being passed on to the consumers are reasonable costs of doing electricity business,” the Commission emphasized.

It added that “the enforcement of ERC rules and regulations will be made to ensure compliance of regulated entities with ERC rules and regulations geared towards the improvement of operations and increase efficiency and productivity.”

The regulation mandate of the ERC spans through the entire supply chain of the power industry – from the generation, transmission, distribution down to the retail segment of the sector; as well as the emerging market innovations due to technological advancements.

The Commission similarly conveyed that its consumer empower programs had likewise been allocated with a higher fraction in its supplemental budget.

Related Tags

#ERC #BUDGET #RATERESET #NGCP #DUs #ELECTRICCOOPS #CONSUMERPROGRAMS
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