Price for renewable-energy certificates out next month
By Lenie Lectura -January 24, 2020
from Business Mirror
The National Renewable Energy Board (NREB) is expected to come up with its proposed pricing for renewable-energy certificates (RECs) anytime next month.
NREB Chairman Monalisa Dimalanta on Thursday said via SMS that it’s the board’s technical team is currently working on the proposal for REC pricing.
“We have NREB Technical Working Group handling this and coordinating with the ERC [Energy Regulatory Commission] on this. We are aiming to finalize recommendation soon. Our next board meeting is early February,” said Dimalanta.
RECs are a market-based instrument that certifies the bearer owns 1 megawatt-hour
(MWh) of electricity generated from any RE resource. Once the power provider has fed the energy into the grid, the REC receive can then be sold on the open market as an energy commodity.
“The pricing would be based on a formula, which we are currently working on now,” added the NREB official. NREB’s recommendation will be submitted to the Department of Energy (DOE) for approval. A separate filing with the ERC follows.
“The mechanism for REC pricing is still being discussed. NREB and DOE will be recommending, though ERC would still have to approve it,” said Energy Assistant Secretary Redentor Delola in an interview.
Ahead of the REC pricing, the DOE launched the Philippine Renewable Energy Market System (PREMS), an online trading platform for RECs.
Delola said PREMS is already operational. “However, the trading of RECs has yet to happen because there’s still no requirement for compliance and we still don’t have the cap for the RE pricing,” he explained.
Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said PREMS will be able to track, monitor, and assess the implementation and compliance to the renewable portfolio standards (rps) rules for both on-grid and off-grid areas.
RPS requires distribution utilities to source a portion of their power supply from eligible RE producers.
Cusi said PREMS will also facilitate market competitiveness, efficiency and transparency in the trading of REC based on the REM, or Renewable Energy Market, and RPS rules.
