Gov’t board vows to recommend key incentives for renewable energy by Q3
MANILA, Philippines – The National Renewable Energy Board targets to submit within the third quarter this year its recommendations for two other crucial incentives under the Renewable Energy Law to further boost investor confidence in the local energy sector.
NREB head Pedro Maniego Jr. disclosed that the group has been working to submit its recommendations for renewable portfolio standards (RPS) to the Department of Energy by August 30, 2011, and the net metering rules to the Energy Regulatory Commission, by September 30.
In a phone interview, Maniego explained that the RPS referred to the volume of electricity coming from renewable energy sources that the distribution utilities would be required to buy from power generation companies.
According to Maniego, the rules for the RPS will be submitted by the DOE to NREB before the end of this month. The NREB expects to complete the computations for the volumes of electricity to be sourced from different renewable energy resources by Aug. 30. These computations will be given back to the DOE for further evaluation and eventually, implementation.
Meanwhile, Maniego expressed confidence that the NREB will complete net metering rules on time so that it could be submitted to the ERC, which would look into its tariff component.
According to Maniego, net metering referred to the option that will allow residential power consumers, as well as businesses to put up their own renewable energy sources such as solar panels on rooftops. Under this mechanism, a distribution utility must put in place a two-way metering connection that would offset the amount of power generated in one’s electricity bill.
“We will try to finish the net metering rules within July or August. Then the ERC will have to come up (with its resolution) within 90 days,” Maniego said.
With some $1 billion worth investments for renewable energy projects currently pending either on the actual project level or on the application level, the government should start implementing the incentives and mechanisms provided under the renewable energy law.
Recently, the DOE said it has already completed a national roadmap for the renewable energy industry, which aimed to provide a more stable direction towards the development and more efficient use of these energy sources.
“The National Renewable Energy Plan outlines the policy framework that is in the law. This will provide the strategic building blocks that would allow for the Philippine renewable energy industry to fly,” said Energy Undersecretary Josefina Asirit.
Asirit earlier explained that the NREP would be able to provide a “continuing and well-coordinated effort to drive development in the RE industry, to promote technological advancements, and achieve economies of scale.”
In a nutshell, the NREP should ideally be able to keep the government on track of implementing all these targets not only to boost the Philippine RE industry, but to also help secure national energy security.
The RE industry needed such directions as the implementation of some mechanisms has lagged. For example, the feed-in tariff system should have been developed within six months of the signing of the implementing rules and regulations governing the RE Law, which was November 2009. It was only last month that the recommendations for the feed-in tariff rules were submitted to the ERC.
