September 5, 2018 | 9:26 pm
THE Energy
Regulatory Commission (ERC) said it will amend its draft rules on microgrids to
include provisions that will clarify whether the private sector can enter areas
within the franchises held by electric cooperatives.
The revised draft will
also put in place a transition period for those that have already built
microgrids, ERC Spokesperson Floresinda B. Digal told reporters on Wednesday
during Powertrends 2018, an annual conference on the energy and power industry.
“The microgrid (policy)
has a draft. What they will be posting is a second draft,” she said.
“They’re processing the
comments submitted for the first draft,” she added, referring to the ERC unit
handling the revision.
She said the draft will
be presented shortly to industry participants for their comment in the fourth
quarter of the year.
Ms. Digal said one of
the issues being discussed within the ERC pertains to the legal implications of
microgrids, including the entry of the private sector into the franchise areas
of electric cooperatives.
“That’s one of the
major issues now and that’s one of the things being processed — the legal issue
as to the franchise. It’s being studied now, but we cannot say what the result
will be,” she said.
The establishment of
microgrids and minigrids became contentious after private companies came out
with such projects in some areas within the franchise territory of electric
cooperatives.
The Department of
Energy (DoE) itself has said that President Rodrigo R. Duterte ordered full
energization in rural areas by opening unserved and underserved areas to
private entities.
“What he is saying is
franchise holders should not make their franchises as a barrier to interested
investors to come in areas that are unserved and underserved,” DoE
Undersecretary Jesus Cristino P. Posadas told participants of Powertrends on
Wednesday.
“Their mandate is to
serve these communities. If these are unserved and underserved, they should
waive their franchise,” he added.
In mid-2017, the ERC
issued an initial draft of licensing rules for “distributed energy resources”
or small power sources whose output can be lumped together to meet regular
power demand.
Its draft rules, which
were posted for public comment, also covered regulation for microgrids, or a
group of interconnected loads and distributed energy resources with clearly
defined boundaries.
A microgrid acts as a
single controllable grid and can connect and disconnect from the national grid
to enable it to operate in both grid-connected or island mode.
“Nobody has approached
us, but we’d be willing to look at (microgrids),” said BDO Capital and
Investment Corp. President Eduardo V. Francisco.
However, a microgrid
project with a cost of less P1 billion may not be worth the effort of studying
its viability, he said. — Victor V. Saulon
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