Published
October 29, 2016, 10:01 PM By Myrna M. Velasco
A one-month extension
had been granted for the filing of updated feed-in-tariff allowance (FIT-All)
that will be passed on in the consumers’ electric bills next year.
That had been in view
of the letter-plea lodged by fund administrator National Transmission
Corporation (TransCo) with the Energy Regulatory Commission.
The extension is to
December 1 this year, from the originally targeted date of filing on October
31.
FIT-All is reflected in
the electric bills in peso-per-kilowatt hour (kWh) basis. Collections will be
used to pay the FIT incentives of qualified renewable energy (RE) projects.
ERC Chairman Jose
Vicente B. Salazar noted that “with the sufficient time leeway granted to
TransCo, ERC expects it to complete all the requirements for filing its 2017
FIT-All rate application.”
Early information fillers
had the industry talking about the possibility of FIT-All application at the
range of R0.20 to R0.24 per kilowatt hour, an increase from currently at R0.12
per kWh.
With continuous
downtrend in power spot market prices, it will take longer period for the
consumers seeing that separate line item of FIT-All burden in their bills – in
fact, it is for almost a quarter of a lifetime.
FIT is a subsidy taken
from consumers’ pockets and paychecks to spur the development of RE in the
country – but installations swamped at a time when caution of cost downtrend in
technology costs had been staring energy officials in the face.
With calls unheeded
then, the consumers are without a choice but to be left with “stranded subsidy
scheme” that in essence manifests the fallacy of what some project sponsors
claim to be environmental advocacy.
The operator of the
spot market earlier showed a study on RE pushing down rates in the Wholesale
Electricity Spot Market (WESM). However, the disconnect must be explained
because the RE facilities are on “must-dispatch” and they can just put up a bid
of zero or negative because at the end of the day, they can still count on
their FIT payments for financial viability.
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