JUNKING OF PSALM PETITION EXPLAINED
The state-firm Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) said regulators had to dismiss its petitions for the collection of universal charges because the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) was too slow to act, such that the filings were overtaken by the Murang Kuryente law.
In a statement, the PSALM clarified that the dismissed petitions to recover stranded contract costs and stranded debts of National Power Corp. were filed and had been pending with the ERC prior to the enactment of the new law.
This law bars the collection from end consumers of new SCC (stranded contact costs) and SD (stranded debt) universal charges. Instead, the law mandated the use of P208 billion of the Malampaya fund—part of the government’s earnings from the Malampaya natural gas project—for the payment of the National Power Corp. obligations that the PSALM assumed.
According to the PSALM, eight petitions covering SCC and SD incurred in years 2014 to 2018 were filed in the ERC yearly from 2015 up to 2019.
“Unfortunately, despite the timely filing of the said petitions and the evidence presented by the PSALM, the ERC did not resolve the petitions right away and as a consequence, the petitions were overtaken by the passage of the Murang Kuryente Act on Aug. 8, 2019, and its implementing rules and regulations on May 5” it added.
“ERC’S dismissal is not because there are no valid SCC and SD but rather, because the Murang Kuryente Act was already passed into law before the ERC was able to act on PSALM’S petitions,” the PSALM said.
The ERC said electricity consumers were spared from rate hikes totaling 25.36 per kilowatt-hour as the regulator dismissed petitions lodged by the PSALM for the collection of universal charges.
“The ERC’S dismissal of PSALM’S petitions embodies the intent of the Murang Kuryente Act, which is to lower the cost of electricity being charged to end-users,” ERC Chair Agnes Devanadera said.
“Had the ERC been hasty in approving those eight petitions, consumers may have suffered another rate increase,” Devanadera said. “Electricity consumers can be assured that the ERC is carefully studying the impact of each and every petition filed with it that affects their electricity bill.”