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TARGETING to meet the mandate of the Electric Power
Industry Reform Act (Epira), the Energy Regulatory
Commission (ERC) has given the National Transmission
Corp. (Transco) the go-ahead to divest its
subtransmission assets to qualified distribution
utilities and electric cooperatives, Arthur N. Aguilar,
Transco president, said Friday.
Subtransmission assets or STAs refer to
transmission lines typically rated at 69 kilovolts and
facilities directly connected to distribution utilities.
“Given the short time frame to divest of
these assets, we have filed a motion for reconsideration
with the ERC to give us further time to sell off our
subtransmission lines,” Aguilar said.
Transco is currently having difficulty
in finalizing deals with just any electric cooperative
or distribution, admitted the Transco official, citing
the strict qualifications sought. He explained that a
distribution utility or electric cooperative should have
the financial capability to own and maintain an asset.
Aguilar added they have even entered
into concessionary deals with some of the electric
cooperatives, allowing them to settle their payment for
such assets for 20 years.
Apart from acquiring the asset, Aguilar
said the buyers of the STA will have to have the
manpower, and budget to maintain.
Aguilar said the ERC has been broaching
the idea of “guiding us to further make it more
concessionary not just in terms of payment, but also in
terms of interest rates.”
To date, Aguilar said the ERC has only
approved 10 of 42 contracts Transco entered into with 42
technically and financially qualified distribution
utilities nationwide for the sale of its STAs.
The 10 approved contracts are those with
San Fernando Light and Power Electric Corp., Cabanatuan
Electric Corp., Angeles Electric Corp., Tarlac Electric
Inc., Negros Occidental Electric Cooperative, Bohol-1
Electric Cooperative, South Cotabato-1 Electric
Cooperative, Sultan Kudarat Electric Cooperative, Davao
Light and Power Corp., and Misamis Oriental-2 Electric
Cooperative.
Transco said the 10 approved contracts
amount to P253.7 million.
Since it began selling in 2004, Transco
has sold a total of P2.5 billion of its P8.8-billion
worth of STAs nationwide, covering 6,900
circuit-kilometers of mostly 69-kilovolt lines and 1,600
megavolt-ampere (MVA) of substation capacity.
The Epira provides that the STAs shall
be operated and maintained by Transco until their
disposal to financially and technically qualified
distribution utilities. |
