By: Ronnel W. Domingo - 05:15 AM September
14, 2017
Phinma Energy Corp. has signed a
solar energy service contract with the Department of Energy to support plans of
a 45-megawatt solar farm in Batangas.
The service contract grants Phinma
Energy the exclusive right to explore, develop and use the solar energy
resource in a 486-hectare area traversing the city of Lipa and the town of
Padre Garcia, the firm said in a statement yesterday.
The company said the contract was
good for 25 years, which could be extended for another 25 years.
Last August, Phinma Energy reported
its net income for the first semester this year fell by 45 percent to P298
million from P542 million in the same period last year due to lower electricity
prices.
Still, the company said it was able
“to achieve a significant volume of customer migration” due to the
implementation of the retail competition and open access (RCOA).
In this scheme, regulators consider
electricity consumers with monthly average peak demand of at least 1 megawatt
as “contestable customers.” This means such consumers should be able to choose
the supplier of their energy requirement, instead of the incumbent distribution
utility.
Alternative distributors, dubbed
retail electricity suppliers (RES), can sell electricity to contestable
customers at competitive rates through direct negotiations and contracts on a
wholesale basis.
The RCOA for the 1-MW threshold was
supposed to have been implemented last February, but the Supreme Court came in
and issued a halt order.
“Despite the temporary restraining
order issued by the Supreme Court, Phinma Energy was able to garner a
14-percent RES market share,” the company said.
“However, heightened competition and
increasing penetration of must dispatch variable renewable energy have driven
market prices of electricity downward,” the company added.
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