7,583 end-users have signed up for the net-metering program at the end of 2022, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) reported.
Of the recorded end-users: 6,120 are from Luzon, 1,168 from Visayas, and 295 in Mindanao.
“While the program highly demonstrates potential savings in electricity cost and protection from bill shocks, actual data shows the need for more aggressive efforts to promote and implement the program in many parts of the country,” the ERC said in a statement.
Despite this, ERC is confident that “there will be significant increase in the net metering program.
In related developments, the Commission on Audit (COA) was recognized as a national agency champion for the net-metering program, having generated over P800,000 in electricity savings since switching to renewable energy in 2017.
“The COA in partnership with the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) Renewables Corporation installed the rooftop panels in 2017 to show support [for] the renewable energy drive of the government and to utilize alternative source[s] of electricity at least cost,” COA chairperson Gamaliel Cordoba said.
Cordoba stated that they hope more government agencies will see the benefits of RE installations and be encouraged to “follow in their footsteps.”
While government offices are not currently mandated to adopt net metering, the direct benefits and protection against rising electricity prices from the positive experiences of agency champions were highlighted by ERC Chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta and Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla in a meeting with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in November 2022.
The net-metering program was first implemented in 2013 and is the first non-fiscal incentive mechanism established under Republic Act 9513 or Renewable Energy Act of 2008.
