The Department of Energy (DOE) may extend the feed-in-tariff (FIT) allocation for biomass and run-of-river projects for three more years, an official said.
DOE undersecretary Felix Fuentebella said that a draft for the FIT allocation extension was submitted for signing by Secretary Alfonso Cusi.
“We’re looking at three years or until the capacity for run-of-river hydro or biomass is filled up, whichever comes first,” he said.
Should the extension be approved, developers can fill the remaining allocation for biomass and run-of-river plants until 2020.
Data from the DOE Renewable Energy Management Bureau (REMB) says that 28.6976 MW has been taken up by existing run-of-river hydro projects while 144.80 MW has been consumed completed biomass plants at the end of 2016.
But there were a number of biomass projects that met the end – 2017 deadline originally set by the government.
“Biomass is more than hundred na but hydro is minimal,” DOE Director Mario Marasigan said.
Following the request from developers, the National Renewable Energy Board (NREB) submitted its recommendation for the extension of the FIT program for the two technologies to the DOE.
Originally, rates of run-of-river were approved at P5.90 per kilowatt-hour (kwh) while biomass had a rate P6.63 per kwh. Both technologies were given an installation target of 250 MW each.
However, the rates were lowered to P5.8705 per kwh (run-of-river) and P6.5969 per kwh (biomass) effective this year.
