ERC pushes tariff for solar home system

by Myrna Velasco
July 9, 2014

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is due to promulgate a tariff system that shall serve as benchmark for the installation of solar home systems (SHS) to interested customers by servicing electric cooperatives.

Prior to Rules promulgation, the regulatory body announced that it will be undertaking public consultations in specified venues in Manila, Cebu and Davao. The first one was concluded July 7 at the ERC offices in Ortigas, while the Cebu leg will be this July 24. The Davao consultation is slated August; while the process culminates in Manila on August 18 – also at the ERC headquarters.

The ‘benchmark SHS tariff’ to be prescribed shall refer to a regulated tariff that must be approved by the ERC for the supply of electricity by an eligible electric cooperative (EC) via the deployment of solar home systems.

The ERC noted that such tariff-setting shall be in support of the “SHS mainstreaming program for rural electrification” that is being implemented by the Department of Energy.

According to the ERC, the SHS benchmark tariff “shall be the approximation of the operating cost an EC would incur in providing electricity service to all SHS member-consumers,” and must also factor in “the cost of the replacement of components as necessary, and covering both direct and indirect overhead costs.”

The draft ERC Rules similarly provided that “the higher costs of servicing SHS for more remote and difficult-to-reach areas shall be considered in an incremental cost adjustment that will apply to SHS in such areas.”

The regulatory body added that such adjustment “will be common across all ECs serving customers in the same defined zones,” — as the household consumers being target of the SHS deployment program will be grouped into cost zones.

As laid down, cost zones “shall capture the range of areas in which the ECs shall operate.” The plan is to segregate the areas into three cost zones that shall be measured by distance from the nearest office of a servicing electric cooperative.

As per policy, the initial capital cost for the SHS “shall be covered by a subsidy” as anchored on the rules crafted by the DOE on solar technology deployment underpinning the government’s electrification program.

Meanwhile, for those classified as non-eligible ECs, installation of SHS system to a customer may also be done – but enforcing the benchmark SHS tariff plus premium, as may be “determined by negotiation between the SHS customer and the EC.”

Under this, it was noted that “an SHS customer may request an EC to provide supply through SHS of larger capacity than the eligible SHS.” The cost the customer pays may cover additional capital and replacement costs for larger capacity systems.

http://www.mb.com.ph/erc-pushes-tariff-for-solar-home-system/

Meralco: Slight increase for July consumption

Claire-Ann Marie C. Feliciano

MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) customers will pay a slight increase for their power consumption in July, given adjustments across the bill components.

Electricity rates will go up by around P0.03 per kilowatt-hour (/kWh) in July, the utility said in a statement yesterday, as the distribution rate cut partly offset higher generation and transmission charges.

“This adjustment comes after two straight months that power rates have gone down, for a combined reduction of P0.89/kWh,” Meralco said, referring to the May and June adjustments.

For July, households consuming an average of 200 kWh per month -- about 75% of the firm’s customer base -- will pay P5.40 more, said Meralco Senior Assistant Vice-President Larry S. Fernandez.

Those consuming 300 kWh, 400 kWh and 500 kWh on average will have to pay an additional P8.67, P11.95 and P15.23, respectively.

Meralco said there was a P0.10/kWh increase in generation charge to P5.41/kWh mainly due to higher costs incurred from suppliers.

Rates from its power supply agreements (PSAs) and independent power producers (IPPs) also went up by P0.26/kWh and P0.10/kWh, respectively.

“These were, however, partly offset by the P4.24/kWh reduction in the average price of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM),” Meralco said.

The company noted that the lower dispatch of several power plants -- which had scheduled and unscheduled outages during the June supply month -- also contributed to the higher generation charge.

These plants were identified as: Pagbilao 1 in Quezon; San Lorenzo units 50 and 60, Sta. Rita unit 40 and Ilijan 2 in Batangas; Calaca 1 and 2 in Batangas; Masinloc 1 and 2 in Zambales; Malaya 2 in Rizal; Quezon power plant; GNPower 2 in Bataan; and Sual 1 in Pangasinan.

But Meralco said a “favorable peso-dollar rate coupled with cheaper coal prices tempered the increase in generation charge.”

PSAs, IPPs and WESM accounted for 53%, 41% and 6% of Meralco’s total energy requirements, respectively.

The generation charge accounts for around 57% of total charges in Meralco’s electricity bill. The rest comprises the distribution charge (17%), transmission charge (10%), system loss charge (5%), and taxes and other charges (11%).

A P0.08/kWh hike in transmission charge, mainly due to higher ancillary charges, also contributed to this month’s adjustment.

Meralco said a P0.003/kWh cut in taxes also offset the P0.002/kWh cumulative increase in subsidies and system loss.

A huge mitigating factor in this month’s rates was the P0.15/kWh reduction in distribution charge that also covers supply and metering charges, the utility added.

The lower charge, which was ordered by regulators following an annual revenue requirement review, will be in effect until June 2015.

Meralco’s controlling stakeholder, Beacon Electric Asset Holdings Inc., is partly owned by Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT).

The energy-efficient home

By Amado de Jesus

http://business.inquirer.net/174149/the-energy-efficient-home

 

The Philippines has one of the highest rates of electricity per kilowatt-hour in Asia. Due to the tropical climate of the country, many houses are dependent on electricity to power air-conditioners and electric fans in order to deal with the high temperatures during the day. This is why energy efficiency is one of the most important principles to keep in mind when building or buying a new house.

The following are some concepts to consider.

1 Insulation. For nontechnical people, insulation would sound like something best left to engineers or architects to discuss. However, this is a very necessary feature to ensure thermal comfort in the home. Insulation can easily be removed from the design stage or not even being installed by the developer because of cost-cutting measures. This is a costly mistake to make because insulation can greatly reduce the heat from the sun that is able to come inside the house.

Roof insulation normally consists of a layer of heat-resistant material between the roof and interior ceiling. This reduces the penetration of direct sunlight on the roof to the top floor. Without roof insulation, the top floor in houses tends to be very hot especially during the afternoon because the sun’s heat has come inside from the roof. It could take hours for this heat to dissipate.

2 Sunshades. Having additional barriers against sunlight outside the house also helps. Sunshades are  any surface placed on the outer layers of a house or building that shield it from direct sunlight. Strategically placed window sunshades are becoming common for modern houses, while other more nontraditional measures also work. Simply having trees or other plants (such as on a trellis or even just on pots) that serve to shade the house from direct sunlight is also a good idea.

3 Cross-ventilation. The design of a house greatly affects the movement of air from outside to inside and vice versa. Take advantage of natural breeze to cools the house, without having to resort to any artificial method that uses energy. However not all architects would design a house with this in mind, so it is best to ask about ways in which cross-ventilation is built into the design of the house. With cross-ventilation, there are multiple passages for air to move into the house, with corresponding exits that allow it to flow out of the house. Thus air does not stagnate and heat building up inside the house flows out naturally.

4 Energy-efficient appliances. It goes without saying that the best appliances to have would be those with high energy-efficiency ratings. In the Philippines, air-conditioning and refrigerator units are required by government to have a sticker stating their Energy Efficiency Factor (EEF), which should be used by consumers for purchasing decisions. The higher the EEF, the more energy efficient the appliance will perform. This means that outright purchase price should not be the only criterion to use before buying appliances. It is better to pay for more expensive appliances just once and pay for lower utility bills for many years, than to pay once for a cheap appliance but pay for high utility bills for the useful life of that appliance.

Lighting fixtures are already moving from the Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) technology to the even more efficient Light-Emitting Diode (LED) lighting technology. Like appliances, these bulbs cost much more than regular incandescent bulbs, but with useful lives throughout the  years and low-power consumption, they are well worth the investment.

5 Airtight air-conditioned rooms. Air conditioning can be wasted in houses that do not have well-built doors and windows. When an air-conditioned room has small openings to the outside environment, hot air comes inside, and this adds to the cooling load of the air-conditioned room. Thus doors and windows should be well-built to ensure air-tightness.

6 More efficient-practices in the home. A good way to reduce electricity consumption is to cut down on unnecessary usage. Appliances left plugged in all the time can be considered electricity “vampires” that continue to use electricity as long as they are plugged.

Energy modesty is a principle that calls for temperance in the use of appliances depending on the true needs of the user. This means buying the right size of appliances and only using them as needed. Having smaller appliances and restricting use of energy guzzlers (most notably air conditioning units) would be another good way to improve energy efficiency in the home.

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7 Should have added solar power generation fixed to roof top will make the house even more sustainable.

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Energy-efficient buildings pushed

By Manila Standard Today | Jul. 04, 2014 at 06:01pm

THE rotational brownouts in Mindanao might have waned, but the region is still in the midst of a power crisis.

As the power crisis continues, consumers are left to bear the brunt of brownouts and rising electricity costs.

What can property developers then do to help minimize the consumers’ dependence on the power grid while at the same time offer affordable projects? How can they make buildings more energy efficient?

These queries were raised by a highly acclaimed “sustainable architect and designer who currently heads a Cagayan de Oro based property development firm.

Italpinas Euro-asian Design and Eco-Development Corp. (ITPI) chairman and CEO Arch. Romolo V. Nati, said that using a combination of smart grid technology, renewable energy sources and high-performance design may just be the solution.

“Renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic solar panels can reduce the power consumption of a building and save on electricity costs,” shared Nati.

“Energy produced from the solar panels can be used to power some areas, if not all, of the building, thus making it self-sufficient and less reliant on the grid.”

According to Nati, integrating these renewable sources with the smart grid technology will further make the building energy-efficient. A smart grid is a computer-based, remote-controlled system that regulates the power supply and efficiency of a building or house.

ITPI is a young Cagayan de Oro property developer specializing in sustainable architecture and design. Its first project, Primavera Residences, is the first eco-friendly condo complex in Cagayan de Oro.

“Designing buildings in consideration of the surrounding environment and local climate will also enable developers to build sustainable structures that can withstand extreme weather conditions. This is what we call high-performance design, Nati said,

However, there is a general misconception that green buildings are expensive to develop. As a sustainable developer, I believe that constructing sustainable buildings does not need to be costly. You just have to come up with a design that does not use expensive materials in order to build affordable projects,” shares Nati.

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500-MW solar installation seen lifting FIT-All rate to P0.112/kwh

by Myrna Velasco
June 30, 2014

The recommendation of the Department of Energy (DOE) to increase solar installation to 500 megawatts will have an ‘escalating effect’ to as much as P0.112 per kilowatt hour (kwh) on the Feed-in-Tariff Allowance (FIT-All) that will be reflected in the consumers’ electric bills.

Based on estimates provided by the National Renewable Energy Board (NREB), the additional 450 megawatts in solar installations as targeted next year will be P0.0509 per kwh. The original solar target development had been at 50MW and to be underpinned by FIT of P9.68 per kwh.

Effectively, the higher solar installations will jack up the pass-on FIT-All rate to P0.112 per kwh, compared to the original calculation of P0.0618 per kWh had the original installation targets per technology been adhered to.

NREB said its calculation had been anchored on 2011 power rates and considered renewable technology installations of up to 1,200 megawatts. Applying such as reference, the maximum consumers’ out-of-pocket FIT subsidy had been estimated reaching P7.209 billion annually.

NREB  Chairman Pete H. Maniego Jr. qualified that “the maximum FIT differential is computed (for 2016 as reference year) when all the 750 megawatts installation targets are already supplying power to the grid.”

He noted that starting this 2014, FIT pass-on may already start but only a fraction of the anticipated RE installations yet will be in operation.

“To date, only a few biomass and run-of-river hydropower plants are operational. For wind, the installations are expected to be completed by the last quarter of 2014 or the first quarter of 2015. For solar, only 13MW had so far been connected to the grid,” Maniego stressed.

The renewable energy body qualified though that “the FIT support or the FIT-Allowance is expected to decline with the increases in WESM (Wholesale Electricity Spot Market) rates and electricity supply over the 20-year period.”

NREB noted that “grid parity is projected in less than 10 years, after which RE sources are expected to reduce rather than increase the electricity rates.”

The proposal to increase solar installation was initiated by the DOE and had gotten the support of NREB for required filing with the Energy Regulatory Commission.

NREB further specified that “considering the low percentage of ongoing biomass and run-of-river hydropower projects to-date, it is possible that not all of the installation targets for these technologies will be met even by 2016.”

The growth rate of RE installations had been projected at 1.5-percent annually, and this has been factored in into the DOE-crafted National Renewable Energy Program.

http://www.mb.com.ph/500-mw-solar-installation-seen-lifting-fit-all-rate-to-p0-112kwh/

Consumers encouraged to invest in solar energy

by Malou M. Mozo
June 24, 2014

Cebu City,Cebu – The Visayan Electric Company (Veco), the second largest power distributor in the country, announced yesterday some 31 interested applications for its “Veco Solar” campaign urging consumers to invest in solar power generation and reduce power use at home.

“The response we got from our consumers, especially residential consumers, is overwhelming,” said Veco Energy Efficiency Specialist Richard Alfafara in an interview with Manila Bulletin yesterday during the sidelines of the Cebu Unplugged: Energy Forum hosted by the company at SM City Cebu.

ENERGY FORUM – Visayan Electric Company (Veco) Chief Operating Officer Sebastian Lacson (right) chats with Department of Energy Undersecretary Raul Aguilos during the Veco-sponsored Cebu Unplugged Forum at SM City Cebu. Among others, the forum was held to teach private consumers how to save energy. (Cheryl |Balciantos)

Veco is the first distribution utility in the country to promote the use of solar energy by its customers through their “Green Energy for a Brighter Future” campaign. Veco Solar has the objective of providing government a helping hand in efforts to protect the environment from pollution.

The company has formed a strategic partnership with Enfinity, the sixth largest developer of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects in the world and a market leader in Europe.

In yesterday’s forum, Veco chief operating officer Sebastian Lacson urged customers to invest in solar power generation to reduce power consumption at home.

“Going solar means not only helping protect the environment but also saving money on electricity bills,” he said, explaining how the Veco Solar program works.

Solar PV panels will be installed in a house’s roof where free energy from the sun is turned into direct current electricity and then carried to a wiring through an inverter and converted to alternating current electricity used at home.

Solar energy produced during the day is used to power appliances, and at night when the system is not producing energy, Veco supplies electricity the normal way. A bidirectional meter records not only the total electricity consumed but also the total electricity produced by the panels.

Lacson said a consumer investing in solar energy will become a power producer with a maximum limit of 1,000 watts. If the consumer uses less than the maximum limit, Veco will pay for the difference.

A typical one-kilowatt peak PV system installation produces 112.5 kilowatt-hours (kWh) or about P1,300 in electricity cost. “If a regular household consumes an average of 200 kWh, which is about P2,400, it would be able to save an average of P1,100 in electricity bill if an investment is made in solar energy,” Alfafara further explained.

http://www.mb.com.ph/consumers-encouraged-to-invest-in-solar-energy/

***

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Top 6 Things You Didn't Know About Solar Energy

Top 6 Things You Didn't Know About Solar Energy

June 22, 2012

energy.gov

US DOE
Erin R. Pierce

This article is part of the Energy.gov series highlighting the "Top Things You Didn't Know About..." series. Be sure to check back for more entries soon.

6. Solar energy is the most abundant energy resource on earth – 173,000 terawatts of solar energy strikes the Earth continuously. That's more than 10,000 times the world's total energy use.

5. The first silicon solar cell, the precursor of all solar-powered devices, was built by Bell Laboratories in 1954. On page one of its April 26, 1954 issue, The New York Timesproclaimed the milestone, “the beginning of a new era, leading eventually to the realization of one of mankind’s most cherished dreams -- the harnessing of the almost limitless energy of the sun for the uses of civilization.”

4. The space industry was an early adopter of solar technology. In the 1960s the space industry began to use solar technology to provide power aboard spacecrafts. The Vanguard 1 -- the first artificial earth satellite powered by solar cells -- remains the oldest manmade satellite in orbit – logging more than 6 billion miles.

3. Fast track to today and demand for solar in the United States is at an all time high. In the first quarter of 2012, developers installed 85 percent more solar panels compared to the first quarter of last year. Total U.S. installations may reach 3,300 megawatts this year – putting the country on track to be the fourth largest solar market in the world.

2. As prices continue to fall, solar energy is increasingly becoming an economical energy choice for American homeowners and businesses. Still, the biggest hurdle to affordable solar energy remains the soft costs – like permitting, zoning, and hooking a solar system up to the power gird. On average local permitting and inspection processes add more than $2,500 to the total cost of a solar energy system. The Energy Department SunShot Initiative works to aggressively drive down these soft costs – making it faster and cheaper for families and businesses to go solar.

1. In California’s Mojave Desert, the largest solar energy project in the world is currently under construction. The project relies on a technology known as solar thermal energy. Once the project is complete 350,000 mirrors will reflect light onto boilers. When the water boils, the steam turns a turbine, creating electricity. The project is expected to provide clean, renewable energy for 140,000 homes and is supported by an Energy Department loan guarantee.