A SOLAR-power provider, whose power project failed to make it to the second round of feed-in tariff (FiT) scheme, has written the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to formally express its concern on how the selection process was carried out by the Department of Energy (DOE).
ERC Chairman Jose Vicente B. Salazar said the commission received a letter from Negros Island Solar Power Inc. (IslaSol), a joint venture between Bronzeoak, the Macquarie-managed Philippine Investment Alliance for Infrastructure (PINAI) Fund, and Dutch pension-fund manager APG.
“They wanted to know more about the transparency of the process involved. That is not for the ERC to answer. I believe that is something for the DOE to answer,” Salazar said.
Energy Secretary Zenaida Y. Monsada said some solar-power providers already wrote to inquire why they were not included on the list. “May mga sumulat na kung bakit daw hindi sila kasama.”
Monsada, however, refused to identify which solar-power provider wrote the DOE, as well as those whose projects did not make it to the March 15 deadline set by the DOE. The DOE last week released the list of solar-power projects awarded with certificates of endorsement (COEs) under the second round of the FiT program.
Under the list, 17 solar-power projects, with a combined capacity of 417.05 megawatts, are entitled to receive the subsidized rate of P8.69 per kilowatt-hour for 20 years as incentive for investing in solar power.This list was forwarded to the ERC so the latter could issue a certificate of commerciality (COC) to each of these projects.
“The COE was already transmitted to us. The next step for us is to evaluate whether we should issue the COC. We can’t just issue the COC on the basis of the COEs coming from other agencies. We have to make a determination whether they are entitled to be given a COC, and that’s what we’re going to do in the next few days,” Salazar said.
