State-run National Transmission Corp. said Tuesday it paid eligible renewable energy developers feed-in tariff claims amounting to P164 billion since 2015.
TransCo officer-in-charge and vice president Dinna Dizon said the company, which manages the FIT-Allowance fund, paid RE developers an average of P23 billion annually.
TransCo administers the FIT fund, which is used to pay the FIT of renewable energy developers, as mandated under the Renewable Energy Act of 2008. The law established an FIT system for electricity produced from wind, solar, ocean, run-of-river, hydropower and biomass.
It guarantees all eligible renewable energy plants an entitlement for the applicable FITs for 20 years.
Dizon said TransCo’s role was expanded to also administer or settle the payments under the Green Energy Auction Program initiated by the Department of Energy.
She said TransCo has a pending petition with the Energy Regulatory Commission for the 2024 FIT-All rate, which is a standardized fee applied to all on-grid electricity consumers.
It forms a critical component of the electricity bill, facilitating the development and promotion of renewable energy sources in the Philippines.
“We also have filed already the 2024 FIT All rate at a level of P0.0867 per kwh which is higher than the current P0.0364 per kWh,” Dizon said.
TransCo sought approval to collect P12.079 billion, including P12.05 billion to be paid out to FIT eligible power plants and P27.166 million for GEAP eligible plants.
TransCo also included administration and disbursement allowances under the application.
She said the implementation of the FIT-All collection was suspended by the ERC “since we have enough buffer at the moment.”
ERC recently extended the FIT-All suspension until September 2023 “to ease the financial burden on consumers at the midst of escalating costs of electricity.”
The ERC said it re-evaluated the FIT-All Fund balance amid the rising level of inflation and cost of living affecting millions of Filipino households and found its healthy status, which could sufficiently cover the FIT-All payment requirements until August 2023.