Napocor needs P18B in ’13 to serve off-grid areas

State-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor) said it would need as much as P18 billion in subsidies for 2013, mostly to fund the operations of its small power utilities group (SPUG) to ensure stable power supply in the so-called “off-grid” areas.

However, only P14 billion has been secured for next year, according to Napocor president Froilan A. Tampinco.

In an interview with the Inquirer, Tampinco explained that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) initially endorsed only P9 billion, or half of Napocor’s proposed budget, citing the “lack of enough resources to support the budget.”

Resources referred to the different sources that Napocor can tap for its funding requirements. The bulk of Napocor’s budget often comes from the universal charge for missionary electrification (UCME), which is a uniform levy collected every month from all power consumers connected to the grid. At present, the UCME is 11.63 centavos per kilowatt-hour.

Another funding source would be the approvals for Napocor’s proposed recoveries of various charges and fuel and foreign exchange costs, which can be collected from either or both the grid and off grid consumers.

“As of August this year, we were already able to raise up our resources on the basis of the approvals of the Energy Regulatory Commission up to P14 billion, so we’re short of only P4 billion next year,” Tampinco said.

“We still have some [pending applications before the ERC], which hopefully will be completed and approved,” he added.

Earlier this year, Napocor filed a petition before the ERC to collect a total of P87 billion subsidies to be collected through the UCME between now and 2016. It likewise sought to recover P5.7 billion worth of funding requirement shortfalls from last year.

Meanwhile, Tampinco expressed optimism that even with the P4 billion shortfall, the Napocor-SPUG—the state generator’s missionary electrification arm that provides electricity to remote islands and far-flung communities—will still be able to ensure adequate and stable power supply in the off grid areas.

“I don’t think we will see the blackouts that happened early last year—hopefully,” Tampinco said.

Napocor operates and maintains 232 small power-generating units with a total generated capacity of about 175 MW, serving 214 island and isolated grids and providing electricity to 47 customers consisting of 39 electric cooperatives, seven local government units and one multipurpose cooperative.