The Energy Department has endorsed an increase in the number of wind projects that can qualify for incentives.
The agency said it endorsed an additional 200-megawatt installation target for wind projects, which would bring the total to 400 MW. The additional target, however, will enjoy a feed-in tariff rate lower than the P8.53 per kilowatt-hour rate approved for the first 200 MW.
“We have increased and submitted that to the ERC. That will make the installed target for wind at 400 MW,” Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla told reporters.
Petilla said the additional installation target for wind would allow other serious players in the wind sector to avail of the feed-in tariff, including Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp.’s 54-MW wind project in Guimaras and Alternergy Wind One Corp.’s 54-MW wind project in Pilillia, Rizal.
“But they cannot get the same FIT rate as the first….It would be decided by ERC [Energy Regulatory Commission],” he said.
Petilla said the National Renewable Energy Board had recommended a 6-percent digression rate for new wind projects. “I would say it is more than P8, but definitely less than P8.0,” he said. Petilla said the department was also set to issue a policy on the feed-in tariff quota.
“I’m going to issue a policy increasing FIT quota that will be linked with additional coal fired plants. Every time you build a coal, then we have to increase the FIT to keep the balance…However, the succeeding FIT will now have to be bid it out. It will no longer be a race,” he said.