16 solar plants secure FIT rates

Alena Mae S. Flores – January 09, 2017 at 08:30 pm
from Manila Standard Today

The Energy Regulatory Commission granted a feed-in tariff rate of P8.69 per kilowatt-hour to 16 solar projects as endorsed by the Energy Department under the second round of installation target.

“We already completed the issuance of CoCs [certificate of compliance] for the solar power plants covered by the second round of FiT rate which is P8.69 per kWh,” ERC spokesman Rexie Digal said.

Digal said ERC completed the issuance of the CoCs on Dec. 5 to 8, 2016.

An FiT rate is an incentive in the form of guaranteed power rate given to renewable energy producers for 20 years.

The regulator acted on the list of solar projects that met the March 15, 2016 deadline of the  department to fill the 450-MW second round of installation target for solar. The first round of solar installation target was placed at 50 MW with a tariff rate of P9.68 per kWh.

Former Energy secretary Zenaida Monsada last year endorsed to ERC 17 projects totaling 417.05 MW under the second wave of installation target.

“Pursuant to the ERC rules, the power plants issued COEs by the DoE were correspondingly issued their FIT-COCs,” the regulator said.

The department earlier issued certificates of endorsement to the following projects: 23-MW solar power project of San Carlos Solar Energy Inc.; 6.23-MW Centrala solar project of nv vogt Philippines Solar Energy One Inc.; 13.14-MW Pampanga solar project II of Raslag Corp.; 2.66-MW Burgos solar project II of Energy Development Corp. and 50.07-MW Tarlac solar project of PetroSolar Corp.

Other projects endorsed by the DoE are 14.15-MW Hermosa solar power project of YH Green Energy Inc.; 10.26-MW Cabanatuan solar project of First Cabanatuan Renewable Ventures Inc.; 63.3-MW Calatagan solar project of Solar Philippines Calatagan Corp.; 20-MW Currimao solar project of Mirae Asia Energy Corp.; 8.- MW Valenzuela solar project of Valenzuela Solar Energy; 2.04-MW Lian solar project of Absolut Distrillers Inc.; and the18-MW Bais solar project of Monte Solar Energy Inc.

The department also endorsed the 22.33-MW Clark solar project of Enfinity Philippines Renewable Resources Inc.; 10.49-MW Kibawe solar project of Asian Greenergy Corp.; 5.02-MW Palauig solar project of Sparc Solar Powered Agri-Rural Communities Corp.; 15-MW Bulacan III solar project of Bulacan Solar Energy Corp. and 132.5-MW Cadiz solar project of Helios Solar Energy Corp.

Digal said all projects that were endorsed were given feed-in tariff COCs “except Nv volt because it’s still being inspected and processed.”

Solar developers that failed to secure endorsements earlier  asked the ERC to review the process and asked for transparency on the eligibility parameters.

The Confederation of Solar Developers of the Philippines Inc. asked the government to allow 27 solar power projects with a capacity of 400 MW to also avail of FiT rates given their huge contribution to the economy and low impact to consumers.

The confederation said in a position paper the net impact of allowing all projects to avail of the P8.69 per kWh in tariff for solar was “minuscule” at P0.04 per kWh.

The group asked the government to allow “all excluded or oversubscribed projects to be included in the FIT-2” as the investments were done in good faith and the proponents contributed to the goal of raising the country’s solar configuration to 500 MW.

The group said the 27 excluded projects invested P31 billion to the economy but the Energy Department endorsed only 60 percent of solar projects that were able to meet the March 15 deadline.