Coal, solar technologies dominate new power projects

By Myrna M. Velasco – August 24, 2020, 5:00 AM
from Manila Bulletin

It’s the clean-versus-dirty fuel technology labels that will wrestle with each other in the indicative power projects of the country, as coal and solar reign in the targeted 33,199.5 megawatts of new power plant installations.

Based on the revised Philippine Energy Plan (PEP) that the Department of Energy (DOE) will blast off for public consultation this week, it was shown that of the outlined megawatt-capacity additions, “king coal” will have the lion’s share of 10,463MW; while solar may emerge as the “queen technology” for a congruent capacity addition of 10,198.6MW.

The PEP rewiring will revisit the energy requirements of the country until year 2040, keeping in mind the pace of domestic economic recovery as it takes off from the affliction of the pandemic and moving forward into the next 20 years.

The other technologies anticipated to have massive scale installations are hydropower for 4,675.6MW and that will rope in proposed pumped hydro storage facilities; then natural gas for 4,060MW that may be ushered in by imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) and possible additional gas extraction from the Malampaya field if its service contract will be given an extended production life cycle.

For wind farm developments, the greenfield ventures are seen reaching 2,843.4MW within the two decade planning milieu. Other RE technologies, like biomass and geothermal, had been eyed for new installations of 343.4MW and 200MW, respectively.

The DOE also casts 500MW of battery energy storage system (BESS) as indicative installations – and this will be a technology-complement to the intermittency of renewables, primarily wind and solar.

For facilities anchored on “Big Oil” that may serve the peaking needs of the country’s power system or the capacity that can be called upon for dispatch when demand peaks, the development plan is for 415.4MW.

Across grids, Luzon power system will corner cavernous installations of 26,804.7MW; then Visayas will come next albeit with leaner 3,903.4MW; and Mindanao, which is seen to be still on a surplus mode in the next five years, keeps the goal on 2,491.4MW capacity addition.

“By fuel type, RE-based generation facilities sum up at 18,261MW, accounting for 55-percent of the total indicative capacity, mostly from solar,” the energy department has emphasized.

Fossil fuels that will be coming from coal and gas power plant developments, on the other hand, will have 31.5-percent and 12.2-percent corresponding shares in the pie.

The energy department reiterated that it embraces “technology neutral approach” on forward development of power projects; and this shall be reflected in retooling the PEP.

“The policy direction of the DOE on fuel source diversity aims to address the reliance of the power sector to a particular fuel source towards electricity supply security,” the energy department stressed.

It further reckoned “considering the positive economic outlook of the country, the DOE deems it vital to have adequate and sufficient capacity additions across the grids.”