The Philippines power sector regulatory environment has recently been given praise due to variety of business opportunities in the unbundled sector looking to meet renewable energy mix targets in the hope to curb climate change. These opportunities allow for residential and commercial & industrial facilities alike to sell net surplus power generated to the grid. For the residential sector, the Net Metering law allows solar PV installations up to 100kW (peak) to sell surplus power generated at the rate of the blended generation rate if the utility, so about 50% of the retail price of power. Until recently, anything above 100kWp had to either have a PPA with a utility off-taker (nearly impossible) or ensure that there was zero export to the grid. The ERC has come up with a DER Law, which does now allow to sell power under various business models for systems below 1MWp.

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How do these prosumers know if they are exporting to the gird and how much? Utilities use bidirectional meters to account for the import and export of power, thus tracking how kWh are consumed off the grid and how many kWh are exported to the gird. This is a requirement for Net Metering, however, for larger systems where there is not supposed to be any export, the meters are most likely analogue unidirectional meters. This means that the mater will account for the kWh being consumed from the gird, but also accounts as a charge for kWh being exported to the grid.

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Through Stratcon's smart power monitor Smappee, we have come across a number of facilities with solar and several of which are exporting to the gird. What does this mean? Several things and its not good news for the prosumer.

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Firstly, the Distribution Utility or Electric Cooperative will be able to file sanctions against the customer. There does not seem to be a case of this as consumers are most likely let off with a warning. If it ain't broke, why fix it - the DU / EC are making money for charging the client for exporting surplus and then reselling the kWhs without having to pay for them. Win win for the DU or EC. The client however, is now left with the burden of facing legal sanctions but is also paying for a much higher blended rate of electricity than they were most likely informed by the solar EPC (and investor).

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There is one particular case in which we informed the client of the illegal export of surplus solar PV. After reviewing the situation with the solar EPC we were informed that there was in fact net zero export devices on the solar PV facility, ensuring zero export. This didn't change the fact that the client was still being charged for every kWh being generated by the the solar PV facility, even if they were not ebing used. Again, increasing the blended rate of power. Was investing in solar PV actually leading to a reduction in overall power operational expenses? Only they would know.

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Stratcon.ph would be happy to undertake this analysis as well as provide solutions to ensure the facility has a net zero export device installed and/or the surplus could be stored in a battery for later use. There are a couple of solutions worth exploring, as every facility is different.