Negros solar plants on‘cliffhanger’ for FIT incentives

by Myrna Velasco March 21, 2016 (updated)

http://www.mb.com.ph/negros-solar-plants-oncliffhanger-for-fit-incentives/

After encountering transmission hurdles, two utility-scale solar installations in Negros Occidental are now on ‘cliffhanger’ when in comes to their inclusion in the second wave of feed-in-tariff (FIT) installations.

A highly-placed source said that these two projects are the: 89-megawatt Negros Island Solar Power (IslaSol) project of Bronzeoak Philippines; and the 59-megawatt San Carlos Sun Power (SACASUN) solar project of the Aboitiz-SunEdison joint venture. The source said that, of the two, the IslaSol project of the Zabaleta-led group had been completed first.

“There would be a solar project in Negros that will certainly be dropped from the FIT incentives if rules are strictly followed, because there are really projects that finished first,” the energy official stressed.

Those with higher chances to be counted in the incentive-underpinned installations would be the 132.49MW Helios Solar Energy; 16.32MW Mirae Asia Energy solar plants and several other projects with smaller capacities because these were completed way ahead of the rest of the projects applying for FIT.

According to the Department of Energy, the FIT-backed installations are now almost full, and that several early ‘project finishers’ are already being evaluated for certificates of endorsement (COE) to avail of FIT incentives.

Meanwhile, DOE acting undersecretary Mario Marasigan has indicated that projects with a total capacity of 292.07MW have already been granted with COEs as of last week.

Several others are still under evaluation before the department could even grant the additional COEs to completely fill-up the 500MW cap for solar developments that would be supported by 20-year FIT perks.

“The last one we issued with COE was the Calatagan project, there’s nothing else yet after that,” Marasigan said.

Another source, also an energy official, has tipped off that the solar developments already granted with COEs for the second wave FIT of P8.69 per kilowatt hour (kWh) include the 50-MW PetroSolar project; 14.5MW YH Green Energy solar facility; and the 63.30MW Calatagan solar farm.

In the initial round of FIT at P9.63 per kWh, the COEs were granted to the San Carlos (SaCaSol) solar project and the 40MW Majetsic solar plant.

For this round, the energy department had been swamped with FIT applications with total installation capacity reportedly hitting more than 700 megawatts.

Under the rules, the DOE will have to issue the COE to the project developer, and this will then serve as its license in applying for FIT certificate of compliance (FIT-COC) with the Energy Regulatory Commission.