Gov’t bank seen as administrator of feed-in tariffs for renewable energy

MANILA, Philippines—The National Renewable Energy Board is considering tapping a government financial institution to administer the feed-in-tariff fund, instead of the privately held National Grid Corp. of the Philippines.

NREB chairman Pedro Maniego Jr. told reporters that the FIT-All fund could be considered a public fund as this would consist of the payments to be made by end-electricity consumers for the use of renewable energy facilities. Payments to developers will also come from this fund.

“NGCP is a private corporation and the FIT-All Fund could be construed as a public fund. Thus it would be prudent if the fund was administered by a government entity according to law,” Maniego added.

According to Maniego, the NREB is presently awaiting the recommendation of the technical working group as to which state-run body can rightfully administer the fund. Those being eyed included the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp., Land Bank of the Philippines, the Development Bank of the Philippines, among other government agencies.

Under the FIT rules issued by the Energy Regulatory Commission, the collections of all the payments made for the use of clean energy will go to an NGCP-administered fund from which payments to renewable energy developers will be taken.

ERC executive director Francis Saturnino Juan earlier said that the NGCP was the natural choice for the commission to administer the FIT-All funds as the transmission operator already had the capacity to do so.

Even industry players have earlier raised concerns on having a private entity handle public funds like the FIT All.

The Philippine Independent Power Producers Association (PIPPA), for one, is already seeking a legal opinion from the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC).

The OGCC is the principal and statutory law office of government-owned-and-controlled corporations (GOCCs), their subsidiaries, government financial institutions, government corporate offspring, and government acquired asset corporations.