posted July 17, 2016 at 11:35 pm by Alena Mae S. Flores
The Energy Department plans to
review the proposal of the National Renewable Energy Board to raise the
installation target for wind and solar by an additional 500 megawatts each to
shield consumers from high power rates.
“We intend to review NREB’s
proposal... to ensure that power consumers are not unduly burdened with
preference for a continuous 24/7 electricity,” Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi
said over the weekend.
NREB proposed a third round of
feed-in tariff rate for solar and wind to former Energy Secretary Zenaida
Monsada, who deferred the decision to the new administration.
Cusi said the proposal needed
thorough review for several reasons.
He said “a cost competitive
effective alternative is to go on open competitive selection process [like]
bidding the right to serve the requirements of distribution utilities and other
mandated power industry players.”
He cited other renewable energy
sources, such as hydro, run-of-river, biomass and geothermal power plants, with
lower feed in tariff rates that could serve the requirements from solar and
wind systems.
Among the renewable energy sources
granted feed-in tariff, only solar and wind were oversubscribed or had very
strong investor interest.
The entire 400-MW approved
installation target for wind and the 500-MW goal for solar was already fully
taken up.
“Aside from RE sources, a clean 24/7
alternative being considered to sustain meeting reduced emissions is liquefied
natural gas,” Cusi said.
The Energy Regulatory Commission
approved a feed-in tariff allowance, a line item in the consumers’ power bills,
of P0.1240 per kilowatt-hour for 2016.
The feed-in tariff allowance is
being collected by National Transmission Corp. from all consumers and is used
to pay the renewable energy developers.
The additional 500 MW installation
target for wind and another 500 MW for solar is expected to increase the
feed-in tariff allowance.
NREB proposed a feed-tariff rate of
between P7 and P8 per kilowatt-hour for solar and P6 to P7 per kWh for wind
under the third wave of installation targets.
The government extends the
feed-tariff as incentive to renewable energy developers under the Renewable
Energy Law of 2008.
Cusi allayed concerns of higher
installation targets, saying the projects should be located in Luzon and
Mindanao where the grid could still absorb it.
“It’s a matter of balancing... They
[DoE] should look at the geography. We have a resolution that the installation
target, not only total but also geographical that’s also submitted to them, it
should be based on demand, transmission constraint, area,” NREB chairman Pete
Maniego said earlier.
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