Separate Pricing For RE Metering

By MYRNA M. VELASCO
September 1, 2012, 
Manila Bulletin (MBC) Online

MANILA, Philippines — A separate pricing methodology will have to be approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in line with the ‘net metering policy’ or the import-and-export of renewable energy (RE) capacity into the power grid.

In the draft Net Metering Rules, it was stipulated that the ERC, in consultation with the National Renewable Energy Board (NREB) and the electric power industry participants, “shall establish in another set of special rules a pricing methodology applicable to net metering.”

The RE technologies that could qualify for net metering include wind, solar, biomass and biogas energy system or other RE systems which are capable of getting installed within the premises of a qualified end-user or QE.

While the final tariffs for capacities under net metering are being deliberated on, it was reckoned that a distribution utility’s “blended generation cost equivalent to the generation charge, including any and all adjustments appearing in the QE’s electric bill, shall be used as the preliminary reference price in net-metering agreements.”

The DU, in turn, is allowed “to charge incremental supply and metering charges which shall be equivalent to 10-percent of their existing ERC-approved Philippine peso-per customer-per month supply and metering rates plus R0.01 per kilowatt hour (kWh) to all customers who avail of the net metering program.”

It was further specified that “the cost of RE supply procured under net metering agreements shall automatically be included in the DU’s total generation cost to be recovered from DU customers as part of the adjusted generation rates.”

In the installation of meters, it was proposed that “an import meter shall be installed by the DU to measure the import of energy from the distribution system to the QE’s premises.”

Similarly, a distribution utility shall “install an export meter at an agreed point of interconnection to measure the export of energy from the RE system to the distribution system.”

There is also an option for the DU “to install a bi-directional meter that can measure both imported and exported energy in lieu of separate import and export meters.”

An alternative to that will be for the DU, “to install a third meter in proximity to the RE system to measure the total RE generated for the QE’s own use and the excess RE exported to the distribution system.”