Published May 29, 2017, 10:00 PM By Myrna M.
Velasco
A final “death sentence” had been
rendered by Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi on any next round of
feed-in-tariff (FIT) that is planned for fresh round of solar technology
installations in the country.
The energy chief similarly indicated
that there shall be no subsidy to be extended on the 360-megawatt “stranded
solar capacity” – or the installations losing in the second wave FIT race
culminating in 2015.
Cusi is sending this clear message
even to the National Renewable Energy Board (NREB) that has been contemplating
on another form of subsidy scheme for the stranded solar developments.
Even diverting conceptually from the
FIT system, the energy secretary noted that any fixed set of subsidy on per
kilowatt hour (kWh) basis for solar is already a ‘no go’ for the Department of
Energy.
“We want to drive electricity prices
down because we are the highest in our region … continuous granting of FIT is
opposed to that objective,” he stressed.
Cusi reiterated “for solar, the
direction is that we stop it…we have to stop the FIT because we have been
grating a very high FIT for that one technology source.”
On the bid of some parties that the
DoE comes up with a written policy on such, the energy chief noted that with
his recurrent public pronouncements, there shall no longer be a need for it.
Instead of incessantly wishing for
fresh round of FIT or any subsidy in another name or form, Cusi noted that
solar power developers should start working on their business models that shall
be revolving around an auction system through competitive selection process
(CSP) and the enforcement of Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) in the
renewable energy sector.
The NREB has yet to come up with an
updated draft on the proposed RPS – given that the last version of the past
administration had some array of opposition from various stakeholders.
The RPS will impose the level or
volume that distribution utilities shall be sourcing from RE players as a
component of their overall supply base. The last proposed figure was at
2.5-percent.
Cusi emphasized that with the
drastic collapse of solar technology costs in the world market, developers on
that terrain would already have that much leverage to compete in the
marketplace even against traditional energy technologies.
“The Philippines, we are a very poor
country…and we have been saying that we are technology-neutral… We want our
supply to be secured and we don’t care where we source it. At this point, we
cannot favor any technology – we have to undergo competitive selection
process,” Cusi asserted.
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