The National Renewable Energy Board (NREB) targets to complete the guidelines on renewable energy use in the country by the first quarter of next year. Arthur Aguilar, NREB chairman, said the board already set up committees to study the country’s renewable portfolio standards (RPS) and feed-in tariff for the use of “green” energy.

“So we’re now on track. [Maybe] on or before the first quarter of next year we would have policy recommendations forwarded to the DOE [Department of Energy] and ERC [Energy Regulatory Commission],” he said.

The RPS would require electricity suppliers to source a certain amount of their energy supply from renewable resources such as wind, solar, hydro, ocean, geo-thermal and biomass.

The feed-in tariff, on the other hand, would require distribution utilities to buy a portion of the electricity they deliver to consumers from such sources.

The two were designed to promote the development of renewable energy sources in the country, which was previously hampered by limited markets and high costs.

But with the threat of a deteriorating global environment looming, government earlier set a long term goal of getting the bulk of the country’s electricity from renewable energy in lieu of fossil fuel-based sources.

NREB was created under the Renewable Energy Act of 2008, which sought to overcome these challenges by providing fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to proponents of renewable energy projects.

The board’s primary purpose is to set up a minimum percentage of generation from eligible renewable energy resources and determine which sector the RPS shall be imposed on a per grid basis.

The NREB chair said that the board is studying similar systems used in Germany, Denmark, US and Canada.

The NREB will also conduct consultations with industry stake-holders, including operators of conventional power plants before it releases its recommendations.

Besides the RPS and the feed-in tariff, Aguilar said the agency also aims to complete preliminary standards on net metering by the first quarter of 2010.
Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo