DOE still in quandary over oversubscription of RE projects

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WEDNESDAY, 11 JULY 2012 18:33 PAUL ANTHONY A. ISLA / REPORTER

THE Department of Energy (DOE) has yet to ascertain which of the proposed renewable-energy (RE) projects it will prioritize once the feed-in tariff has been put in place, Energy Undersecretary Jose Layug Jr. told reporters on Wednesday.

At the sidelines of the Platts Forum on Oil, Coal and Liquefied Natural Gas, the DOE official said they have limited installation targets even as they issued a lot of service contracts to RE project proponents.

“Given our installation targets, we anticipate an oversubscription on a per-technology basis. Depending on the final feed-in tariff and if we continue to have this oversubscription projects, then we will craft a criteria to determine which project will be initially granted a feed-in tariff,” he said.

A feed-in tariff refers to a guaranteed rate given to RE developers over a period of time.

Layug said those who will meet the criteria will be the ones to go ahead first, adding they are also looking at several options to determine which project to prioritize.

The options, he added, include giving the allocation on a first-come, first-serve basis; bidding the allocation and use the feed-in tariff as a ceiling price; giving equal allocations to each proponent; and asking the proponents to talk among themselves on who should go first.

Layug said the initial installation target for all RE technologies is only for the first three years and that another installation target would have to be set thereafter.

He made it clear that the first-come, first-serve basis may be used on whichever project is way advanced and has been given a contract ahead of the others. 

“It could actually be based on financial closure, technical advancement, interconnection agreement, readiness for construction, among others,” he said.

The National Renewable Energy Board (NREB) has also approved a total of 780 megawatts (MW) in installation targets of RE to be developed.

Of the 830 MW, according to NREB, 250 MW will be from hydro power projects, another 250 MW from biomass power projects, 220 MW from wind, and 50 MW and 10 MW from solar and ocean technologies, respectively.

Based on the NREB petition, it recommended that the FIT rates for solar power, ocean power, wind power, biomass and hydropower power to amount to P17.95 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), P17.65/kWh, P10.37/kWh, P7/kWh, and P6.15/kWh, respectively.     source