Many power distributors unfamiliar with net metering

By Jordeene B. Lagare – September 7, 2020
from The Manila Times

THE implementation of net metering program, a scheme wherein an electricity end-user who owns a renewable energy (RE) facility to sell excess electricity to the distribution utility (DU), has hit a snag. “Many of them are actually hesitant or not yet familiar on the process on the net metering,” said Mylene Capongcol, director of the Department of Energy’s Renewable Energy Management Bureau. With the support of development partners including Usaid Clean Power Asia, Capongcol said the agency has been holding series of capacity building to boost the hosting capacity of DUs on adopting the net metering program. “I guess this is just a matter of hand-holding them in the first few stages of net metering. Then sure, they will be able to participate, to entertain more net metering participants,” Capongcol said during webinar entitled “REady, Set, Go: Gaining Competitive Advantage in Business through Renewable Energy.” For its part, the Energy Regulatory Commission said what remains to be done is the information campaign drive on the revised net metering rules. “What remains really is the information dissemination on the revised net metering rules, capacitating the DUs, especially the electric cooperatives and, of course, informing the consumers about this program,” said Sharon Montaner, chief of the ERC’s Renewable Energy Division.