The Energy Regulatory Commission said Tuesday it suspended the collection of the feed-in tariff allowance for three billing months from December this year to February 2023.
It said it reviewed the FIT-All fund balance and found that its present healthy status would be sufficient to cover the FIT-All payment requirements for the next three months.
The ERC said it issued the resolution to mitigate the impact of the rising cost of living and inflation on the public, including the rising cost of electricity.
“The commission is sensitive to the impact of the rising level of inflation and cost of living to millions of Filipino households. 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,” ERC chair Monalisa Dimalanta said.
FIT-All is a uniform charge imposed on electricity consumers and is a component of the electricity bill that ensures the development and promotion of renewable energy in the country. Power customers are paying a FIT-All rate of P0.0364 per kWh.
The ERC said the FIT-All fund had a balance of P4.245 billion as of Nov. 7. The average monthly cost recovery collection from January to November 2022 was P1.795 billion.
The monthly average disbursement from the FIT-All fund for the same period was P2 billion.
“The FIT-All fund balance as of Nov. 7, 2022, inclusive of the CRR collections in November 2022, shows a healthy fund balance that can sufficiently cover the FIT-All payment requirements for three months, assuming the average CRR collection,” the ERC said.
The ERC said it would review, once again, the status of the FIT-All fund, prior to the end of the suspension period to determine if a further extension or other reliefs would be available to consumers.
It said the suspension of FIT-All collection was one of the immediate interventions it discussed with the distribution utilities during the power supply agreement caravan to mitigate high electricity rates.
The ERC said it was also readying other mitigating measures as Manila Electric Co.’s refunds totaling P1.80 per kWh for residential consumers by May next year.
The ERC previously ordered Meralco to implement four different refunds to consumers.
The regulator directed Meralco to refund P13.89 billion, equivalent to P0.2761 per kWh, effective March to December 2022. It also ordered Meralco to refund customers P4.84 billion, equivalent to P0.1923 per kWh from March 2022 to January 2023.
The third refund involves P7.8 billion, equivalent to P0.4669 per kWh from May 2022 to November 2022.
The ERC also ordered Meralco to refund its consumers P21.8 billion, equivalent to P0.8586 per kWh, effective July 2022 to May 2023.
