by Myrna Velasco June
23, 2016 (updated)
With the Department of
Energy (DOE) finally making public the qualifiers in the second contracting
round for solar technology, alarm bells have been raised that the
feed-in-tariff allowance (FIT-All) component will likely raise electric bills
again.
According to industry
sources, the P0.1240 per kilowatt hour (kwh) FIT-All may not be enough to
compensate all the solar projects that have been recently endorsed for the
subsidy borne out of consumers’ pockets.
It is worth noting that
FIT Administrator National Transmission Corporation (TransCo) previously batted
for a FIT-All charge of P0.147 per kwh based on the list of prospective
projects that had been available to it at the time of its filing with the
Energy Regulatory Commission.
And during the period
when ERC was deliberating on the adjusted FIT-All rate, the expectation would
be ‘under-subscribed’ installation in solar developments. The reverse happened,
however, that the DOE had to qualify up to 525.95 megawatts of capacities for
FIT availments. In fact, total developments reached as high as 890 megawatts.
This early, power
distribution firm Manila Electric Company (Meralco) is concurring to the idea
that the FIT-All may be adjusted again upwards from the current level.
The utility firm
indicated that the public seems to be “bracing for a much higher FIT-All when
the ERC issues its final decision on the case.” It must be recalled that the
P0.1240 per kwh FIT-All rate was just approved provisionally.
It was further pointed
out that “a number of the projects (qualified in the second solar FIT race) had
not been part of the original submissions made by TransCo as part of the
justifications of the recently increased FIT-All.”
No less than ERC
chairman Jose Vicente B. Salazar has sounded off earlier that the FIT-All may
rise further because of the over-subscription in solar installations.
It is for that reason
that the regulatory body has been batting for a pause on the proposed next
round of FIT rates until they have fully determined what impact these would
have on the consumers’ pockets.
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