Govt sees no spike in RE rates

Manila Times.net

THE government expects no significant rise in electricity rates once the tariff incentive for renewable energy (RE) projects is set.

Pedro Maniego Jr., National Renewable Energy Board (NREB) chairman, said the agency expects consumers to pay less than what RE developers are seeking for the feed-in-tariff (FIT).

“I think that the FIT-ALL [FIT allowance] would still be lower than P0.15 per kilowatt-hour,” he said.

The FIT-ALL is a uniform charge that will be paid by consumers similar to the Universal Charge in electricity bills. The amount collected from this tariff will then be distributed to RE developers, based on their respective FIT.

The FIT is the guaranteed price at which proponents of green power projects will be paid for the energy that they will produce.

The incentive was mandated by Republic Act 9513 or the RE Act of 2008.

The tariff will be set by the Energy Regulatory Commission upon petition by the NREB. The NREB and the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines are studying how many RE projects can be absorbed by the grid.

RE generating units are powered by location-specific energy sources, which make the availability of generated capacity inherently variable, erratic, and uncontrollable.

But based on the NREB’s proposed rates and installation targets, the FIT-ALL would amount to around P0.11 per kilowatt-hour.

Maniego said that RE developers have asked for an increase in their tariff incentive.

“The NREB technical committee will review the FITs based on the points raised by the developer. They will present their revised FIT rates, if any, to the NREB board next week,” he said.

The RE developers, in particular, have proposed a FIT of P19.87 per kilowatt-hour based on the installation target of 235 megawatts for solar; P11.29 per kilowatt-hour for wind at 340 megawatts; P8.22 per kilowatt-hour for biomass at 170 megawatts; P7.40 per kilowatt-hour for hydro at 148 megawatts; and P18.52 per kilowatt-hour for ocean at 10 megawatts.

In total, the developers computed the FIT-ALL at around P0.17 per kilowatt-hour.

Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo