DoE rolls out RE market system
Credit to Author: Jordeene B. Lagare| Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2019 16:22:19 +0000
THE Department of Energy (DoE) on Tuesday unveiled a renewable energy (RE) market system as part of efforts to boost the use of this nonconventional energy resource in the country.
The Philippine Renewable Energy Market System (Prems) is an online platform which shall be used by the RE registrar, the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC), to handle registration and contract management, renewable energy certificate (REC) allocations and transactions, compliance with renewable portfolio standards (RPS), and reports management.
Prems is intended to support the development, utilization and commercialization of renewables in the country.
During the Prems launch on Tuesday, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said the Prems, to be operational by Jan. 1, 2020, shall be utilized to track, monitor and assess the implementation of RPS for both on-grid and off-grid areas.
RPS on-grid rules mandate all distribution utilities, retail electricity suppliers and other participants, including power-generation companies serving directly connected customers, to get a certain percentage of their power needs from eligible RE sources, while RPS off-grid obliges industry players in remote and missionary areas to source a certain percentage of their power requirements from acceptable RE resources.
“The Prems will provide strong partnerships among players with varying interests. The participation of industry players and consumers will allow synergies that will build a secure, self-sufficient, and sustainable energy for our next generations,” Cusi said in his speech.
“In this age of innovation and digitization, artificial intelligence and virtual reality, we want the country to lead and contribute to the world’s dream of clean and sustainable use and development of energy,” he added.
The Prems was conceived through the DoE’s Development for Renewable Energy Applications Mainstreaming and Market Sustainability (Dreams) project, in partnership with Global Environment Facility and United Nations Development Programme.
The DoE and the PEMC, the governing body for the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market to monitor compliance by market participants with the market rules, co-implemented the Prems, while Exist Software Labs handled the supply of hardware and software, as well as the full development of the said system.
The agency’s Renewable Energy Management Bureau is the implementing unit for the Dreams project.
Meanwhile, a group of clean energy advocates and power consumers called on the government and stakeholders to walk President Rodrigo Duterte’s talk during his 4th State of the Nation Address, in which he asked Cusi to reduce reliance on conventional energy resources and accelerate RE development in the country.
Ahead of Christmas, Power for People Coalition (P4P) renewed its call to veer away from the development of coal-fired power plants.
“It is high time for him to give teeth to his renewable energy pronouncement by issuing an executive order to end coal. It is high time, too, to initiate the overhauling of Epira (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) to give way to legislation that levels the playing field for renewables,” P4P convenor Gerry Arances said.
This can be attained by severely reviewing existing policies in the energy sector, which enabled the dominance of destructive and expensive electricity from coal at the cost of consumers’ welfare.