Amid the impending increase of Meralco rates next month, Representative Teddy Casiño of Bayan Muna Partylist urges the Department of Energy (DOE) to provide strategic solution to rising cost of electricity and calls on government to speed up the implementation of the solar rooftop program that will allow factories and small businesses to produce their own power.
Casiño said, “The solar rooftop program gives immediate solution to rising electricity rates. No other technology gives the commercial and industrial electricity consumers the power to build renewable energy systems on the roofs of their establishments or factories and produce their own power.”
All other renewables, Casiño added, do not have, as of today, modular systems like solar technology allowing businesses and factory operators to enjoy the opportunity of avoiding the expensive and volatile pass-through generation charges.”
Meralco announced early last week the spike in WESM prices for the month of October due to the use of expensive fossil fuel in generating power. Businesses are complaining about the high electricity rates in the Philippines and are talking about re-locating in other countries.
This WESM price of P30/kwh, explained Casiño, is almost double the proposed feed-in tariff for solar which is about P17.95/kwh. Ironically, DOE continues to allege solar as expensive and capped the solar installation to 50mw, from the original target of 100mw.
