Another Meralco refund

Power utility giant Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will refund ₱0.05 per kilowatt hour (kwh) in March billing to customers, which accounts for the charges it passed on from the new gas sale and purchase agreement (GSPA) that its power supplier First Gen Corp. had sealed with the Malampaya consortium.

Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Chairperson Monalisa C. Dimalanta said the refund will be for the new gas rates under the GSPA for fuel drawn from the Malampaya field and fed into the power plants of First Gen in Batangas.

According to Meralco, the incremental cost recovery in the Malampaya-linked new GSPA hovered at $2.3 million and that had been integrated in the cost pass-on in the last billing cycle.

“What we could not validate is the new Malampaya price, because we were waiting for the copy of the new GSPA, hence, that will be the portion for refund,” the ERC chief said.

Dimalanta said that the bigger portion of the pay-back to customers at ₱0.30 per kwh would have accounted for charges passed on from the power suppliers’ cost of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), but since Meralco had filed a motion on that, there is no refund order yet issued by the regulatory body.

“They filed a motion last Monday (Feb. 19) to officially request if they can charge that (LNG cost) effectively. That’s what they’re asking in their motion,” she said.

Dimalanta said “it would be a better recourse that they filed (the motion) because it’s better that we make the process public – especially something that affects the rates. This cannot be resolved by mere exchange of letters.”

She said that the preliminary step taken by Meralco was to send an official letter to the ERC seeking clarity if they can pass on charges arising from cost adjustments in the new GSPA as well as the LNG fuel shift of the generating facilities of First Gen, primarily the Santa Rita plant.

Dimalanta specified though that the Commission cannot render a ruling if the measure taken would just be through letter, “we cannot set that for a hearing, that’s why they (Meralco) filed a motion.”