Philstar.com
January 14, 2025 | 5:56pm
MANILA, Philippines — Facing allegations of owing P204.3 billion to Filipinos for its purported excess earnings, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) clarified that the figure does not stem from actual bills to power consumers.
The allegations arose from a congressional probe into the privately owned transmission service provider’s franchise, operations, earnings and project delays that have affected the country’s energy supply.
During a hearing of the House Committee on Ways and Means on January 7, which focused on NGCP’s franchise tax collection, Chairperson Joey Salceda (Albay, 2nd District) proposed that NGCP refund the P204.3 billion in alleged excess revenue to power consumers.
In a statement sent to Philstar.com on Tuesday, January 13, NGCP explained that the P204.3 billion was calculated based on two key figures:
- P387.8 billion – NGCP’s proposed total revenue for the fourth Regulatory Period (4RP), covering 2016 to 2020, submitted to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
- P183.5 billion – The ERC’s approved total allowable revenue for the same period, as issued in its Partial and Initial Determination on Nov. 7, 2023.
The NGCP argued that the P204.3 billion represents the difference between their proposed revenue and what the ERC approved for the five-year period.
They implied this amount does not reflect actual over-earnings or charges to consumers but is based on assumptions made during the regulatory review process.
“It [should] be noted that NGCP only billed customers for the period 2016 to 2020 at about P219 billion,” the statement read, further elaborating that subtracting this from the allowable revenue is P35 billion.
No final ERC evaluation yet
The transmission service provider clarified that the ERC-approved P183 billion allowable revenue was only an initial determination, with the final amount for the five-year period set at P206.99 billion.
This resulted in an excess of P12.23 billion for 2016 to 2020, which NGCP categorized as a negative revenue adjustment due to discrepancies between the revenue forecast and the regulatory adjustment process.
When the ERC issued the draft final determination for 2016 to 2022 on Nov. 8, 2024, the allowable revenue was set at P310.97 billion.
With a total billed revenue of P311.94 billion for the seven-year period, NGCP reported an excess — or negative revenue adjustment — of P978 million.
The transmission service provider pointed out that the ERC has not yet completed its evaluation of NGCP’s earnings, including a review of the right of way (ROW) expenditures, which involve the construction of new high-voltage power lines.
NGCP has also attributed project delays to ROW issues, referring to the legal challenges in acquiring and using land for power infrastructure.
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