DOE assures grid integration of RE capacities

The Department of Energy (DOE) is giving guarantee to the grid integration of more than 13,000 megawatts of new renewable energy (RE) capacities to be on commercial stream in the next three years.

That had been the assurance given by Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina L. Guevara when she laid down over 11,600MW of new capacity to be offered by the department under the Green Energy Auction Program (GEAP) by June this year.

On top of the capacity in the 2nd round of green energy auction, there would still be roughly 2,000MW of RE capacity which will be reaching commercial operations between next year and 2025 that had been awarded under GEAP-1 in 2022.

She indicated that on a meeting she had with transmission firm National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), “we are guaranteed that the generated renewable energy can be transmitted at the projected timelines of 2024 to 2026.”

Nevertheless, players in the RE sector have serious doubts on DOE’s pronouncement, especially so since there was no comprehensive stakeholder consultation carried out before the new GEAP volumes had been drawn up by the DOE.

In the first GEAP, the DOE was widely criticized for resorting to “guessing game” when it comes to the volume that shall be offered to investors under GEAP. One serious predicament confronting investors is the grid integration of their RE-generated capacities.

In other energy markets like Vietnam, the major mistake hobbling their RE sector is the catch-up mode when it comes to grid integration; because RE power plant developments had gone high speed and aggressive, but the buildup of transmission facilities to underpin wheeling of their generated capacities came at a slower pace.

While the investors are happy with the increased volumes for GEAP-2, they stated that their major apprehensions revolve around concerns on whether or not all these new capacities can be readily handled by the grid; plus the timeline of delivery of the capacities for 2024 target might be coming too fast, especially for wind which will be needing several years before they could reach commercial operations.

Still, Guevara emphasized that in the GEAP-2 notice to be issued by the department, it will “include in the terms of reference the list of areas and corresponding capacity of transmission that is already available,” and that will be provided by NGCP.

The energy official narrated that she met with NGCP President Anthony Almeda on this and the NGCP team “to discuss how transmission development can be accelerated to match the pace of generation development.”

She conveyed that from that meeting, “NGCP welcomes the challenge of using new technologies for faster completion of transmission lines.”

On the perpetual dilemma of right-of-way (ROW) acquisitions that have been impeding transmission projects, Guevara noted that her colleague, Undersecretary Sharon Garin has been assisting NGCP with right of way issues.