Gov’t to change renewable energy mix

Energy undersecretary Jose Layug. Photo from doe.gov.ph

The Department of Energy (DOE) is planning to reallocate the installation targets among the renewable energy sources in favor of the more expensive solar and wind power projects.

Energy Undersecretary Jose Layug Jr. assured the public, however, that such an action would not increase the feed-in-tariff (FIT) allowance—or the universal levy to be collected from all power consumers for the use of renewable energy facilities—beyond the estimate of 5 centavos per-kilowatt-hour (kWh).

The DOE has set a limited installation target of 760 megawatts. This means that only those projects that receive an allocation from this installation target—which refers to the total capacity of renewable energy projects that will be allowed to be constructed within a three-year period—will be subject to the feed-in-tariff rates.

Under the current installation target, the 250 MW has been allocated for hydropower projects, 250 MW for biomass, 50 MW for solar, 200 MW for wind power and 10 MW for ocean power.

The initial plan being studied by the DOE is to increase the installation target for wind projects by another 50 to 60 MW to increase the allowed capacity to as much as 300 to 310 MW. The installation target for solar projects may also be increased by another 30 MW to a total of 80 MW.

According to Layug, the reallocation was meant to address the oversubscription on the two particular resources. This means many of the proponents have wind and solar projects whose total capacities are much higher than the allocated installation targets.