Portuguese firms eye RE projects in PH

Lisbon-headquartered Energias de Portugal (EDP) and its subsidiary EDP Renewables (EDPR) are eyeing to invest in the country’s renewable energy (RE) sector, particularly in their core wind farm business.

The interest of the Portuguese electric utility and its RE investment arm was sounded off to Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla by Portugal Foreign Minister João Gomes Cravinho during his courtesy visit at the Department of Energy (DOE).

As relayed to the Philippine energy chief, EDPR was established to manage, operate, and invest in the renewable assets’ portfolio of the EDP, one of the world’s leaders in wind energy installations. EDP, in particular, is the major shareholder in EDPR.

There are no specific details yet on the targeted investment, technology preference and targeted siting of the RE installations by the Portuguese energy firms.

In a statement to the media, the DOE only indicated the planned collaboration between the Philippines and Portugal on RE as well as on other clean energy technologies, including hydrogen.

“Potential areas of cooperation include RE development and alternative fuels. Both (EDP and EDPR) wish to expand their presence in Southeast Asia through investments in the Philippines,” said DOE.

Within Southeast Asia, EDPR has presence in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia while its other key offshore investment-markets have been China, Taiwan, Canada, United States, Brazil and its neighboring European markets.

The Philippines and Portugal are fundamentally joined by the hip, not just by historical accounts, but even the operation of both markets’ power grids has something in common – the State Grid Corporation of China is a key investor in the transmission system of these two energy markets.

On the part of the DOE, Lotilla conveyed that the areas for cooperation the country could explore with Portugal would be on “development of offshore wind (OSW) and floating solar, hydrogen and ammonia production using RE and liquefied natural gas (LNG) importation.”

The Philippine energy chief further offered collaboration on the “improvement of transmission and distribution lines in the Philippines to support its economic development and energy transition agenda.”

Another interesting experience that the Philippines would want to learn from Portugal is the incentive mechanism it has been enforcing to stimulate transformative approaches on the phaseout of its coal plants including co-firing of ammonia and hydrogen with these thermal fleets.