Published : Thursday, July 28, 2011 00:00 Written by : O
The National Renewable Energy Board (NREB) is pushing for a government financial institution to manage the funds that would be collected from consumers to support renewable energy projects.
Pete Maniego, NREB chairman, said that as public funds, “it would be more prudent if the fund is administered by a government entity according to law.”
The Renewable Energy Act of 2008 mandates the establishment of a feed-in-tariff (FIT) for qualified renewable energy projects. The incentive basically provides guaranteed rates over a period of time for developers that would be shouldered by consumers.
In the FIT rules released by the Energy Regulator Commission, the funds that would be collected for the incentive would be administered by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP). The latter is the private concessionaire operating the country’s transmission facilities, which deliver electricity from power plants to distribution utilities.
The power sector’s price regulator will conduct public hearings on the FIT starting August 3.
Maniego said that NREB, which is tasked to oversee the implementation of the Renewable Energy Act, is currently looking at the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp., Land Bank of the Philippines and Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) as possible FIT administrators.
Earlier, independent power producers proposed a same move given concerns that a private company would handle public funds.
Ernesto Pantangco, Philippine Independent Power Producers Association president, said that it would be more prudent for DBP to take over NGCP’s role as FIT administrator to assuage these concerns.
At the same time, government would be able to cut on administrative costs.
“We’re hoping and telling DBP to be the administrator to have a lower administration and processing fees,” Pantangco added.
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