December 2 ------ The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has suspended for three months the collection of the feed-in-tariff allowance (FIT-All) charge in the electric bills to soften the electricity rates being paid by consumers, especially during the Christmas season.
According to the regulatory body, the suspension of FIT-All collection will start from December 2022 to February 2023 billing cycles. The interim stoppage of that cost component in the power bills will bring down rates by as much as P0.0364 per kilowatt hour (kWh) on a monthly basis. The ERC said it has factored in the prevailing high cost of living as well as the healthy balance of the FIT-All Fund as anchors in its decision to temporarily cease the pass-on of FIT-All charges. FIT-All is a separate line item in the electric bills, which is collected from all ratepayers to compensate the capacities supplied by the qualified renewable energy (RE) developers.
“The Commission is sensitive to the impact of the rising level of inflation and cost of living to millions of Filipino households,” ERC Chairperson Monalisa C. Dimalanta said. Hence, the FIT-All suspension had been one of the band-aid measures pushed to alleviate the financial burden of ratepayers. “We join the rest of government in introducing remedies to ease inflation pressure on our citizens, including those that impact on their ability to pay for the rising cost of electricity due to external pressures” the ERC chief stressed.
The regulatory body emphasized that after the three-month suspension period, it will review again the FIT-All collection, “to determine if a further extension or other reliefs would be available to consumers.” The ERC conveyed that the break on FIT-All collection had been discussed with the distribution utilities (DUs) as a temporary fix that can be enforced to immediately bring down overall electricity tariffs for consumers.
The series of caravan on the power supply agreements (PSAs) served as ERC’s venue in reaching out to power utilities so they can collaboratively sort out solutions to the relentless complaints of consumers on exorbitant power rates.
Source: mb.com.ph