Published By Myrna M. Velasco
Despite the string of
yellow alerts or thinning power reserves straining Luzon grid to breaking
point, the Department of Energy (DOE) has an alarming list of “scant or
deficient” and almost no new committed power projects beyond the plants that
are now under construction and due for commercial commissioning between this
year until 2021.
Supply in Luzon grid,
in particular, is already on catch-up mode given the well-observed uptick in
demand because of the aggressive infrastructure development build-up of the
Duterte administration on its “Build, Build, Build” economic paradigm.
Based on documents
obtained from the DOE, it was shown that its list of committed power projects
just include the 150-megawatt Phase 2 of the Limay coal-fired power project of
the San Miguel group; the 300-megawatt Masinloc coal-fired power project also
of San Miguel group; the 500MW San Buenaventura coal-fired facility of Meralco
PowerGen and Thai firm EGCO which is due to come on-line this year; and the
1,336MW Dinginin coal-fired power project of Aboitiz and Ayala groups.
It is worth noting
though that with the pace of power demand growth in Luzon grid, these ongoing
power projects may only be able to meet the needs of the system at the targeted
‘meeting point’ of supply-demand by year 2022 – including the provision for
reserves or ancillary services.
Included in the energy
department’s roll also are the 1,200MW Atimonan coal-fired power project of
Meralco PowerGen; and the 600MW Redondo Peninsula (Subic) power project, which
is also of Meralco PowerGen and partners Aboitiz Power and Taiwan Cogeneration
Corporation. For the Atimonan and Subic power ventures, however, these are
currently hurdled with streak of legal and regulatory issues and have been
facing opposition from various advocacy groups – and there’s no certainty on
when they can actually take off from project blueprints.
Supply in Luzon grid,
in particular, is already on catch-up mode given the well-observed uptick in
demand because of the aggressive infrastructure development build-up of the
Duterte administration on its “Build, Build, Build” economic paradigm.
Based on documents
obtained from the DOE, it was shown that its list of committed power projects
just include the 150-megawatt Phase 2 of the Limay coal-fired power project of
the San Miguel group; the 300-megawatt Masinloc coal-fired power project also
of San Miguel group; the 500MW San Buenaventura coal-fired facility of Meralco
PowerGen and Thai firm EGCO which is due to come on-line this year; and the
1,336MW Dinginin coal-fired power project of Aboitiz and Ayala groups.
It is worth noting
though that with the pace of power demand growth in Luzon grid, these ongoing
power projects may only be able to meet the needs of the system at the targeted
‘meeting point’ of supply-demand by year 2022 – including the provision for
reserves or ancillary services.
Included in the energy
department’s roll also are the 1,200MW Atimonan coal-fired power project of
Meralco PowerGen; and the 600MW Redondo Peninsula (Subic) power project, which
is also of Meralco PowerGen and partners Aboitiz Power and Taiwan Cogeneration
Corporation. For the Atimonan and Subic power ventures, however, these are
currently hurdled with streak of legal and regulatory issues and have been
facing opposition from various advocacy groups – and there’s no certainty on
when they can actually take off from project blueprints.
The
rest are just various renewable energy projects but of very marginal
capacities: Including geothermal for 31MW capacity; solar projects for 115MW;
and hydropower for 22.6MW capacity.
Another
one in the list is the long-delayed 600MW liquefied natural gas (LNG) power
project of Energy World Corporation (EWC) – which had been expected by the DOE
to have reached commercial operations as early as 2015; but the actual date for
it to be on stream has yet to be affirmed anew by the department.
According
to industry players, there are practically no new project commitments beyond
the power needs of the industry beyond 2022 because of the regulatory overhang
of the several power projects still not decided by the Energy Regulatory
Commission (ERC).
And if the DOE will not
step up on its planning adjustments and if the ERC could not break regulatory
lag on its decisions, there is a very high probability that the Duterte
administration will be committing the country to another round of power crisis.
For most of the players
in the industry, including those affiliated with the Philippine Independent
Power Producers Association, Inc. (PIPPA), they are just hoping that the
completion of the targeted Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project (MVIP) will
be concretized by 2020 so sharing of capacity could be made feasible on a
nationwide basis.
It has not be to be
sidestepped though that many of the power generating facilities of the country
are of old fleets, hence, the recurrence of forced outages may become an
unwanted trend in the power system.
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