Danessa Rivera (The Philippine Star)
- July 26, 2020 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Energy
Secretary Alfonso Cusi has signed the green energy tariff program policy to
boost renewable energy (RE) development in the country.
In a webinar Friday, Department of
Energy (DOE) Assistant Secretary Redentor Delola said the policy was signed
last July 14 but has yet to be published.
“We’re already processing the
publication. Basically, the policy just lays down the framework for the
auction,” he said.
The green energy tariff will
“provide price signals on the commercial value of electricity generated from RE
facilities,” which will be the basis of a benchmark rate for RE in the country.
Meanwhile, the green energy auction
will facilitate supply contracting by qualified suppliers with eligible
customers under a competitive process.
The policy will set the framework to
facilitate the compliance of distribution utilities, retail electricity
suppliers, RE suppliers, and end users with the Renewable Portfolio Standards
(RPS).
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.
Once the policy is published, the
DOE will work with stakeholders—particularly with distribution utilities
(DUs)—to draft the rules.
“The rules that will govern the
auction will have to be drafted and that is something that we will work on with
DUs especially because the DUs are the mandated participants,” Delola said.
In the same webinar, National
Renewable Energy Board (NREB) chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta said DUs wanted
greater involvement in crafting the rules of the auction itself since they are
the main participants in the policy.
Delola said the country still has
time to polish the rules since most DUs are still compliant with the RPS
policy.
“We are all still compliant to the
RPS rules, maybe until 2022, 2023 but beyond that, there will already be a
requirement from everybody,” he said.
Last year, Cusi bared plans of
bidding out 2,000 megawatts (MW) of RE capacity to encourage developers to put
up RE projects and fast-track the development of cleaner power generation.
Cusi had directed NREB, the advisory
body tasked with the effective implementation of RE projects in the country, to
review and make a recommendation on the concept of giving an allocation of
2,000 MW and green energy rate for RE development.
Assisted by NREB, the DOE is
updating the country’s RE targets as capacity fell short from goals set 10
years after the Renewable Energy Act of 2008 was enacted.
Under the National Renewable Energy
Program (NREP) 2011-2030, the DOE is targeting to triple the existing renewable
capacity of 5,438 MW in 2010 to 15,304 MW by 2030.
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