Danessa Rivera (The Philippine Star)
- September 7, 2019 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine
government is being urged to provide more support for renewable energy (RE)
development to help meet the country’s capacity goals and requirements for
clean energy.
During Powertrends 2019, Aboitiz
Power Corp. chief operating officer Emmanuel Rubio said the country has
seen an increase in RE development since the Electric Power Industry Reform Act
(EPIRA) of 2001 and the Renewable Energy Act of 2008 were enacted.
“These two laws led to the rapid
rate of RE development that will eventually bring the country to where it is
today in terms of RE,” he said.
He cited the Philippines’ standing
in the World Energy Council report 2018, which placed the country at the top in
terms of our environmental sustainability.
This is on the back of an RE capacity,
reaching 7,227 megawatts as of the end of last year, driven mainly by the
development of the country’s key RE resources namely geothermal and hydropower,
as well as massive development in the past few years brought about by the
feed-in-tariff (FIT) system.
Despite these achievements,
challenges in the development of RE are far from over, Rubio said.
“As the country’s demand for RE
continues to grow, it is imperative for the government to create an environment
that is conducive to making renewable energy more competitive, hence more
beneficial to consumers,” he said.
Under the National Renewable Energy
Program (NREP), the Department of Energy (DOE) is targeting to triple the
existing renewable capacity of 5,438 MW in 2010 to 15,304 MW by 2030.
But almost a decade after, the
country has only increased its RE capacity to over 7,000 MW.
In order to further drive RE
development, Rubio said the government could help in streamlining the
permitting process.
“Currently, we need a multitude of
permits and approvals, even more stakeholders to convince, and several years to
get the green light to build hydro or geothermal power plants. The government
has initiated programs like the Energy Virtual One-Stop Shop (EVOSS) and Energy
Projects of National Significance (EPNS), which should at least reduce
timelines for projects that qualify under these programs,” he said.
Another challenge is the delivery of
energy to consumers once the power plants are built, since transmission
networks are still limited.
The DOE is also being urged to
fasttrack the implementation of RE policy mechanism supports such as the
Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) and Green Energy Option Program (GEOP),
which are seen to increase the share of RE in the supply mix up to 35 percent.
“There are still concerns that RPS
will drive electricity prices up. We agree with the Department of Energy (DOE),
that with regulations like competitive selection process (CSP) in place, these
concerns can be managed. The best value will still win. The consumers will
still win,” the AboitizPower official said.
“The implementing rules and
regulations (IRR) for GEOP is still being developed and this early, metering,
and connection issues are already being raised. We need to work with
distribution utilities and electric cooperatives in order to facilitate ease of
switching for customers who opt to benefit from GEOP. After all, the ultimate
goal of these policies and frameworks is to benefit consumers by giving them
the power to choose,” he said.
A provision of the RE Act, RPS
mandates power industry players to produce and source a certain percentage of
electricity from RE sources such as biomass, waste-to-energy technology, wind
energy, solar energy, run-of-river hydroelectric power systems, impounding
hydroelectric power systems, ocean energy, and geothermal energy.
Another policy support under the law
is the GEOP, a mechanism where electricity end-users are given the option
to choose RE as their preferred source of energy.
The FIT system details perks for
power developers for a period of 20 years to invest in the more expensive
renewable sector. Payment for FIT-eligible projects are shouldered by all
on-grid electricity consumers through a uniform charge called FIT-All.
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