Department of Energy (DOE) Undersecretary Felix William “Wimpy” B. Fuentebella delivers the opening remarks on behalf of Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded workshop on Distributed Photovoltaic Solar Generation. The two-day event was launched yesterday (9 July) at the F1 Hotel Manila in BGC, Taguig City.

Distributed solar photovoltaic system (DPV) refers to the rooftop installation and production of useable solar power mainly for customers’ self-consumption through use of solar panels.

The workshop, “Scoping a DPV Impact Analysis for the Philippines,” evaluates the effects of DPV adoption for the personal use of consumers. It focuses on three key areas, particularly on the customer economics of DPV investment, utility revenue and rate outcomes, as well as the technical impacts on the distribution grid. The result of the scoping will enable the DOE and energy stakeholders to craft more responsive net metering policy and regulatory framework to encourage greater demand side management through distributed renewable energy resources.

The event was made possible by the USAID Clean Power Asia program, the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the US Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Chulalongkorn University in Thailand.

“The DOE recognizes the importance of increasing consumer demand for distributed, customer-generated power with the economic and technical repercussions.  Thus, our collaboration with our partners seek to address these current challenges and fine-tune the existing Net Metering policy. Our goal is to minimize the negative impacts on other stakeholders and on the power grid,” said Sec. Cusi in his speech delivered by Usec. Fuentebella.

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