A cross-country comparison of compensation mechanisms for distributed photovoltaics in the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam

Globally, policies designed for high penetration of distributed photovoltaics (DPV) primarily have shifted from mainly encouraging investment through subsidies to addressing equity and stakeholder concerns on retail tariffs and utility revenue impacts. Net metering and feed-in tariffs now serve as the main policy mechanisms to support distributed PV in the U.S. and Europe, although modifications are ongoing to alleviate concerns over consumer inequity and the financial health of utilities. Retail tariff design and utility revenue impacts are now at the forefront of the debate for ASEAN countries formulating new policies and incentives for PV deployment. This paper discusses experiences of DPV development in the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. These countries have ongoing efforts to adjust their DPV programs to match a rapidly dynamic and evolving DPV market and incorporate new technology capabilities such as blockchain-based peer-to-peer solar energy trading platforms. The paper also presents a quantitative analysis of customer economics under various competing compensation mechanisms and analyzes the remaining barriers to DPV market expansion in these three countries. Net billing could achieve more economically equitable policy design for other Southeast Asian countries looking to make solar electricity broadly accessible for all.