Ramon Abaya
CEPALCO
I keep hearing the same old complaint from all and sundry that REs will raise the rates to the retailers; while this is perfectly correct, it is beside the point and completely misses the purpose behind the RE Law; which is to encourage the use of clean energy while minimizing their effects on retail rates. RE Law would not have been passed, after so many frustrating years, if the country didn't think it was worth our while to help clean the environment while staving off a crippling power shortage.
That same Law imposes the obligation on policymakers and regulators to make sure the rates do not go out of control. ERC by the way is the final arbiter on rates, including FiTs, under the RE Law; I suggest that we give them the benefit of doubt that they have the competence to dispatch their job well and the wisdom and the experience to tread the delicate balancing act between the customer and the investor. Do we trust them enough to do the job of evaluating FiTs NOW? I wonder. (If we feel we need to second guess the regulators, then I think the argument stops here at this moment; what is the point of all these exercises?)
Solar for instance takes less than a year to install, while the more conventional ones will take much, much longer. To me, it is perfectly clear that REs can help solve the more immediate problem of power shortages; and yet one keeps hearing the old refrain that the rates will go up. Of course they will, even if we put up more polluting plants; hey, this is supposed to be self-evident!
Well, do we want to have enough power or not? Is the lack of power a lot cheaper than rolling out REs? Everyone knows the devastating economic effects of a power lack. I will let the reader make that decision, since he is after all an electricity consumer too! He is in fact the ultimate decider on this issue. Not the developer, not the bureaucrat, the regulator, the utility, the policy maker, none of them will really matter.
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