Razon power unit, Iloilo, ERC ink clean energy’ pact

MANILA  -Tycoon Enrique Razon Jr.’s MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) has signed a tripartite agreement with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and the Iloilo local government to promote the use of clean energy in the city and manage electricity costs through the establishment of a “one-stop shop.”

Under the agreement, MORE Power’s one-stop shop will offer renewable energy technologies, such as net metering and distributed energy resources (DERs), to provide customers with more options to lower their energy consumption.

“One of the obligations under the agreement is to have a one-stop shop where applicants and interested parties can come … Being the first in the Visayas to enter into this agreement showcases our strong support for the government,” MORE Power president and chief executive officer Roel Castro said in a statement on Friday.

The ERC is tasked with providing technical and regulatory expertise to streamline documentary submission, installation, payment and permitting processes of net metering and DER.

It will also support information drives to increase awareness of renewable energy among power consumers in Iloilo.

Through net metering, a nonfiscal inventive mechanism implemented under the Renewable Energy Act of 2008, consumers may install their own solar panels of up to 100 kilowatts (kW) to meet their electricity demand.

DERs, meanwhile, are smaller power sources that could be aggregated to provide additional supply.

ERC Chair Monalisa Dimalanta encouraged other local governments to participate in the net metering program “to bring solutions closer to our people.”

As of June, the ERC has issued certificates of compliance to 72 qualified end-users under the net metering program in Iloilo with a total capacity of 985.37 kW.