RE market begins full operation on December 26

December 11, 2024 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The renewable energy market (REM) is set to start full commercial operation on Dec. 26, according to the Department of Energy (DOE).

In a department circular issued on Dec. 6 but only made available on Tuesday, the DOE announced the full implementation of the REM, which has been in interim operation since 2022.

The REM is the venue for trading RE certificates (RECs), equivalent to an amount of power generated from RE facilities, helping mandated participants comply with their Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) obligations.

RPS is a market-based policy that mandates power suppliers to source an agreed portion of their energy supply from eligible RE plants.

Under existing rules, renewables should account for at least 11 percent of the total energy sales of mandated participants.

With the start of REM’s full operations, the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) will take over the role of RE registrar (RER) from the Philippine Electricity Market Corp.

The RER is responsible for the issuance, safekeeping and verification of RECs.

Issued to mandated participants, the REC is currently capped at a price of P241.56 per megawatt hour as determined by the Energy Regulatory Commission.

The IEMOP is also set to assume the maintenance and operations of the Philippine Renewable Energy Market System (PREMS), an enterprise-grade system that automates the function of the RER.

As of end-November, 90 percent or 295 of the expected 328 on-grid participants had registered in the REM and had active access to the PREMS, IEMOP data showed.

On-grid participants include RE generators and mandated participants such as distribution utilities, electric cooperatives, retail electricity suppliers and generators serving directly connected customers.

The REM’s full operation is expected to provide a significant boost to the government’s target of expanding the share of renewables in the country’s energy mix to 35 percent by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040.