THE Department of Energy (DoE) advisory body on renewable energy issues expects the agency to issue on Dec. 15 two regulations that the power sector has been awaiting for months now — Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) and Green Energy Options.
“We have formally endorsed the RPS on grid and the green energy option rules. The DoE is currently reviewing, and we are hoping they will be issued by not later than Dec. 15, 2017,” said Jose M. Layug, Jr., chairman of the National Renewable Energy Board (NREB).
He said he had submitted to the DoE on Nov. 1 the final draft of the two proposed regulations. He called the submission a formality as NREB had been discussing the proposals with the DoE for months.
“We’re hoping. We’re very very positive about it. We’ve talked to all the stakeholders, we received all inputs and we’re hoping that by Dec. 15, 2017 the rules will be issued, effective 2018,” he said.
RPS is a market-based policy that requires electricity suppliers to source an agreed portion of their energy supply from eligible renewable energy (RE) resources. It is called for under Republic Act (RA) No. 9513, the law that promotes the development, utilization and commercialization of RE resources.
NREB, which was also created by the same law, is required to set the minimum percentage of generation from eligible RE resources and determine to which sector RPS shall be imposed on a per grid basis. RPS was supposed to be implemented a year after RA 9513 took effect in 2008.
RA 9513 requires the DoE, in consultation with NREB, to promulgate the appropriate implementing rules and regulations “which are necessary, incidental or convenient to achieve the objectives set forth” in the law.
“The [DoE] Secretary [Alfonso G. Cusi] has said that while he is technology-neutral we have certain mandates under the Renewable Energy Law, under the EPIRA (Electricity Power Industry Reform Act) [of 2001], even under the law that created the DoE, that the preference and bias should be towards clean energy, indigenous energy resources,” he said.
“We’re hoping that the RPS will finally be issued. This is long overdue and more distribution utilities and cooperatives will sign up power supply agreements for renewables,” he added.
The Green Energy Option program lays out the renewable energy choices for end-users to select for their power requirements.
The renewable energy options listed by the DoE are biomass, solar, wind, geothermal, ocean energy and hydropower that conform with internationally accepted norms and standards on dams, and other emerging renewable energy technologies.
The purpose of the program is to empower electricity users to choose renewable energy in meeting their electricity requirements. — Victor V. Saulon
