DOE to start designing smart grid

By Alena Mae S. Flores – October 16, 2023, 7:01 pm
from manilastandard.net

The Department of Energy (DOE) plans to start the detailed design of Smart and Green Grid Plan (SGGP) for the seamless integration of additional renewable energy (RE) capacity to the grid by 2024.

“Detailed design if SGGP, in phases, will start in 2024 and construction of SGGP will be from 2025 to 2035,” DOE Undersecretary Rowena Guevara said Monday.

She said the DOE began formulating the SGGP as part of the Philippine Energy Plan.

Guevara said SGGP is a strategic plan for the transmission system that incorporates accelerated RE development in the grid from 2025 to 2035.

The DOE set a 35-percent RE share in the power mix for 2030 and 50 percent by 2040.

“We have now a team at the DOE that is doing the planning for transmission to make sure that all of these renewables that we are coming up with are actually going to be connected,” Guevara said.

She said National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) as the transmission network operator will develop the implementation of the SGGP in the Transmission Development Plan (TDP) and implement the TDP.

She said the DOE was working with NGCP for projects awarded under the Green Energy Auction Program

“We need to make sure that the transmission lines and substations are built and connected,” she said. “We need to make sure they [renewable energy projects] will be delivered.

“The smart and green grid plan would serve as the basis for the transmission development plan of the NGCP,” Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said earlier.

Lotilla said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s directive in his second State of the Nation Address in July is “loud and clear” that “RE is the way forward.”