Energy policies are being pushed following the recent power supply shortage in the Luzon Grid.
A bill has been filed at the Senate seeking to remove the 100-kilowatt cap in the installation of power generation facilities under the net metering program.
Net-metering involves the sale of excess power generated from consumer-owned renewable energy installations to the local distribution grid of electric distribution utilities that can be paid via an offset to the monthly power bill.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, in his Senate Bill No. 2219 said removing the cap will encourage more investments in renewable energy while providing savings to industries that have the capacity to install their own power generator facilities.
According to Gatchalian, the net-metering program is not maximized as only 53 or 37.32 percent out of the 142 distribution utilities have qualified end-users for net-metering as of March 31.
Aside from the removal of the cap, the bill mandates the Energy Regulatory (ERC) to regularly determine the cap taking into consideration the possible effects on the stability of the grid and the retail rates of captive customers and further streamline the submissions and permitting process to include minimum requirements for local government units.
Meanwhile, the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) is crafting a price determination methodology (PDM) for putting up a reserves market for electricity.
The PDM will provide participants with specific principles and computational formula to verify the correctness of charges being imposed.
“We are drafting changes in the PDM. From what we’ve submitted earlier, energy and reserves are co-optimized but what they only approved is the energy. We are required to re-file the co-optimization part of the reserves market. That is what we are doing now — to file a PDM focusing mainly on the pricing and cost recovery aspect of the reserves market,” said Isidro Cacho Jr., IEMOP chief corporate strategy and communications officer .
In an online briefing yesterday, Cacho said the creation of a reserves market is also expected to provide transparency on the status of the country’s excess power supply whether they are firmly contracted or not.
“The reserves market will provide enticement for investors. They can factor in their sales for ancillary services in the reserves market aside from what they can sell in the energy spot market,” Cacho added.
IEMOP said the proposed PDM needs the approval of the Department of Energy, ERC and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
It said there is no need to pass a new law for the creation of a reserves market as this is allowed under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001.
