BUSINESS MIRROR
MONDAY, 11 JULY 2011 02:08
THE Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) was asked to hasten approval of the feed-in-tariff (FIT) rates submitted by the National Renewable Energy Board (NREB) amid grumblings by prospective investors over the delayed implementation of the subsidy scheme to support renewable-energy (RE) projects in the country.
Sen. Edgardo Angara, who authored the RE law, or Republic Act 9513, cited the frustration aired by Jessie Ang, country representative of the International Finance Corp. (IFC), who warned that the private-sector investment arm of the World Bank Group would not fund any RE project without the subsidy in place.
“We have been waiting for that [FIT] since June last year [and] the government made so much hoopla about it, so they should just finish it,” Ang was quoted as saying in a statement released by Angara’s office over the weekend.
Angara noted that potential RE investors as “already jittery even though they have been waiting long for a clear policy position on RE.”
“The law is in place, why not implement it? The ERC needs to take heed of this and quickly approve the proposed FIT rates,” Angara added.
The senator explained that Section 7 of the RE law mandated a FIT system to accelerate the development of emerging RE resources, such as geothermal, solar, hydro and wind.
He said the FIT rates submitted by NREB to the ERC cover 20-year contracts, with provision for foreign exchange (forex) and inflation adjustments.
Ang added that the NREB proposal is acceptable to IFC given that other countries do not have provision for forex and inflation adjustments. --B. Fernandez
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