The cumulative cost recovery petitions of state-run National Power Corporation (NPC) for fuel, purchased power and currency exchange rates, will saddle electricity consumers in Luzon with up to P3.38 per kilowatt hour (kWh) adjustment in their bills if blanket approval is granted by the Energy Regulatory Commission.

For Visayas, the financial burden will be worse as the NPC-proposed adjustments will push up their electricity bills by P4.7135 per kWh; while Mindanao will have to put up with proposed aggregate adjustment of P1.555 per kWh.

ERC executive director Francis Saturnino Juan noted that the staterun power firm has three pending petitions with the Commission, the latest of which was the 15th Generation Rate Adjustment Mechanism (GRAM) and 14th Incremental Currency Exchange Rate Adjustment filed this week.

As compared to basic rate which is more permanent fixture in the electricity tariffs, cost recoveries for generation and forex charges are temporary and are just typically spread over three months or longer.

In the January filling, the total deferred accounting adjustment (DAA) for both ICERA and GRAM were estimated at P2.0655 per kilowatt hour Luzon; P1.2688 per kWh for Visayas and P0.2254 per kWh for Mindanao.

In the latest cost recovery application, Juan noted that the amount being sought for ICERA will be P1.40 per kWh while the GRAM component amounts to P0.5608 per kWh.

Given the anticipated price shocks these proposed cost recoveries may trigger on consumers, the ERC executive director noted that they will study carefully the basis of computations and cost references adopted by NPC and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation.

“We will study these applications carefully,” he stressed, adding that they may look cumulatively at these applications to trace the basis of computations. It was gathered that the power firm’s currency cost adjustments have bloated because of the change in exchange rate they have factored in to the application.