NPC offers 4 pilot areas for fuel hybridization plan
By Alena Mae S. Flores – January 5, 2025, 7:40 pm
from manilastandard.net
State-run National Power Corp. (NPC) said it will hold the bidding this month for the Accelerated Hybridization Plan (AHP) of four pilot areas, a key priority this year.
NPC president Fernando Martin Roxas said the Government Procurement Policy Board approved the terms of reference and customized bidding documents for the AHP, which would allow private sector participation in renewable energy (RE) generation at Napocor’s Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG) diesel power plants.
“We intend to start the tender for our four pilot clusters—Bicol, El Nido, Batanes and Tawi-Tawi—within this month of January and award contracts in May,” Roxas said.
“The AHP aims to replace about a quarter of our diesel consumption with RE sources. However, we still need to address the remaining 75 percent fossil fuel usage. We are piloting biofuels at two existing plants —one in Southern Palawan and another in Western Mindanao—with completion targeted for 2025,” he said.
Roxas said NPC’s second priority is establishing an alternative fuel supply chain for missionary areas. “We are starting with a pilot project for Western Mindanao, planning to tender in the second quarter of 2025 and award contracts in mid-2025,” he said.
He said NPC is also planning a biomass application in Southern Luzon, which it hopes to initiate in early 2026. “We are seeking multilateral funding to support these research initiatives,” he said.
NPC warned last year it would be forced to curtail operating hours of its SPUG operations by March this year if it did not receive approval from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for its pending cost recovery petitions.
Roxas said NPC needs P11.5 billion for fuel costs in 2024, adding that for every P1-billion deficit in fuel costs, there will be 2.1 hours of no power.
NPC asked the ERC to recover a total of P27.79 billion for foreign exchange current fluctuation costs and deferred fuel costs.
