September 25, 2017
THE
National Renewable Energy Board (NREB) is finalizing its recommendation to the
Energy department to extend the feed-in-tariff (FiT) system for biomass and
run-of-river hydro power projects, its chairman said.
“We’re finalizing our
endorsement to the [Department of Energy] Secretary [Alfonso G. Cusi],” said
Jose M. Layug, Jr., chairman of NREB, the agency that advises on the direction
of renewable energy in the country.
He said his office
recommendation is to extend the period for the FiT as he cited the industry’s
recommendation for the guaranteed rate to stay for three to five years.
He
declined to give an ideal rate for the extension but said the rate should be
determined by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
“[The rates] depend on
the determination of the ERC. They degress it depending on certain factors,”
Mr. Layug said.
As of end-2016, the ERC
had awarded certificates of compliance to biomass projects with a total
capacity of 28.6976 megawatt (MW), or well below the 250-MW installation target
set by the DoE for biomass plants, which convert agricultural waste to electricity.
That certificate serves
as basis for the biomass developers’ collection of the guaranteed FiT.
Subscription
to the installation target and the corresponding FiT is to end in December.
For run-of-river
hydropower, the DoE under the previous administration set a target of 250 MW
with a FiT rate of P5.90 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). As of May 2017, only four
projects have been built with a total capacity of 28.70 MW. The rate has been
degressed this year to P5.8705 per kWh as called for by the FiT rules.
Under the FiT system,
qualified developers of emerging renewable energy sources are offered a fixed
rate per kilowatt-hour of their exported electricity, but excluding the energy
for their own use. — Victor V. Saulon
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