Napocor says no overcharge, adjustments merely delayed

By Riza Recio

05/12/2008

State firm National Power Corp. (Napocor) will comply with the order of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to explain why it has not filed for the Generation Rate Adjustment Mechanism (GRAM) and Incremental Currency Exchange Rate Adjustment (Icera) for the period July 2006 to March 2008.

It denied in a press statement that it overcharged cosumer bills through over recoveries made during the period.

The state-owned power generation company said that it is actually set to file for the 9th GRAM and 8th Icera, and is just awaiting the approval of the Napocor board.

The ERC said, for its part, Napocor should expedite its application to refund power consumers of billions of pesos collected from savings in peso-dollar exchange rate because this generation company has decreasing operating expenditures due to the transfer of privatized power plants to new owners.

The ERC also recently ordered Napocor to explain its failure to file rate adjustments on Icera and on GRAM estimated to reach P10 billion in over recoveries collected from July 2006 to March 2008.

These over recoveries include cost recovery arising from incremental currency rate adjustment and to generation rate adjustment mechanism will translate to refund of 20 centavos per kilowatthour.

Napocor was previously accused of window-dressing its financial performance because of the huge windfalls it earned from foreign exchange gains as a result of the strong peso.

ERC, however, allowed Napocor to apply the forex gains to augment operating expenditures including expenses on fuel procurement purchases.

The arrangement also resulted for the ERC to allow Napocor to implement a staggered adjustment on ICERA and GRAM.

Back to top

For comments about this website:Webmaster@tribune.net.ph
The Daily Tribune © 2006