Philippine utility gets approval to recover fuel and lube costs

Cotabato Light and Power Company Inc. (CLPC), a private electric utility in the Philippines owned by the Aboitiz Group, has been given the go-signal by the Philippine Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to recover some Php22.181 million (US$501,923) worth of fuel and lubricant costs which it incurred from 2004 to 2010. The approved cost recovery will then translate to Php0.0298 (US$0.001) per kilowatt-hour (kWh) and would have to be passed on to its customers within a prescribed period. However, the company’s bid for automatic recovery of costs for fuel and lubricants in the future was disapproved by the regulatory body, inferring that such has to be rendered, to avoid confusion with the automatic generation rate adjustment mechanism for generation charges. (September 11, 2010)