Published June 5, 2019, 10:00 PM By Myrna M.
Velasco
Power utility giant Manila Electric
Company (Meralco) is stepping up investments in renewable energy (RE) capacity
with installation rollout of 1,000 megawatts (MW) in the next 5-7 years.
For its jumpstart point, the utility
firm set up subsidiary corporate vehicle MGEN Renewable Energy, Inc. (MGreen),
which will also be affiliated with its power generation arm Meralco PowerGen
(MGen).
The company has not given breakdown
yet on capacity installations per technology, albeit it indicated that it will
be a combination of wind, solar and run-of-river hydropower facilities.
The company timed its RE investments
announcement with the celebration of World Environment Day, which according to
Meralco President and CEO Ray C. Espinosa will be the company’s step at
“joining the inexorable shift to renewable energy and the adoption of
sustainable practices in everything we do.”
He qualified that “Meralco is
committed to developing large-scale RE projects that can deliver competitive
electricity for our customers – without requirement for subsidy or support.”
Espinosa emphasized this is also the
power utility firm’s way of pursuing “environmental stewardship and
sustainability as top priorities in our business.”
The RE capacity build-up will be
most critical at this point as the government enforces the Renewable Portfolio
Standards (RPS) policy which requires distribution utilities to procure certain
percentage of their supply from RE plants.
In the past two years, the company
has been casting several RE projects on blueprint – but at this stage, company
executives expect that these could finally take off from the drawing board.
“We are working on several renewable
energy prospects and we recognize the significant reduction in the development
cost, particularly for large-scale solar and wind over the past years,” MGen
President and CEO Rogelio L. Singson said.
He asserted that “notwithstanding
the ongoing requirement for new reliable baseload generation to support the
fast-growing Philippine economy, we believe that the time is right to focus on
building our green energy capacity and we intend to be a key player in this
expanding sector.”
The Meralco executive added the MGen
RE subsidiary “will continue working on the realization of our project
opportunities, and will work in partnership with established developers to
maximize our growth potential.
Meralco executives emphasized that
while they pursue these RE-underpinned ventures, the company will also continue
with other blueprinted projects, including high efficiency, low emissions
(HELE) coal-fired facilities which would satiate the country’s need for
baseload capacity over the long term.
Investments in the power sector will
be re-ignited to be the “game in town” as the country is on the brink of a
crisis situation warranting the immediate need for capacity additions.
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