This is an article repost.
THE MUCH-AWAITED pricing system for renewable energy projects faces further delay, as it was discovered in a public hearing yesterday on the so-called feed-in tariff (FIT) that the National Renewable Energy Board (NREB) failed to publish its full FIT recommendation due to lack of funds.
The discovery of this technicality prompted the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to prevent the hearing from proceeding.
“I doubt if we will be able to finish the hearings by September,” ERC Executive Director Francis Saturnino C. Juan told reporters after the hearing.
“Considering the defective publication of the notice, the Commission had to cancel the [hearings] set on Aug. 9 and 11 and issue a new notice for hearing.”
He explained that the ERC can hold such hearings only after the document concerned is published in full.
NREB finally submitted its FIT proposal to the ERC on May 16, following several delays. It was supposed to file its recommendations on March 31 after three other extensions dating back to Aug. 4 last year.
The NREB chief said the board failed to publish the full recommendation because it did not have enough funds to do so.
“We are the petitioner, we have to follow what they (ERC) require from us. We did not follow it in full because it’s 28 pages and it will cost us P1.1 million…We have to look for money,” NREB Chairman Pedro H. Maniego said.
He hinted, however, that this technicality may be resolved soon, saying: “It’s good that the Department of Energy will help us, because NREB itself doesn’t have any budget.”
Recommended FIT rates are: P7 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for biomass, P6.15/kWh for run of river, P10.37/kWh for wind, P17.65/kWh for ocean and P17.95/kWh for solar. — ENJD
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Source: Business World, Aug. 3, 2011
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