Updated
By Myrna M. Velasco
With the specter of extreme
tight electricity supply plaguing anew these summer months, Energy Secretary
Alfonso G. Cusi admitted his department is now on a “tight race” on cornering
targeted billions of dollars of new power investments.
The energy chief is not
only in competition with time in ensuring that those much-needed investments
will come – given that he has just more than two years left on his tenure at
the Department of Energy (DOE); but the country will also be wrestling with the
rest of the Southeast Asian region in enticing new power projects.
At the AGI
Sustainability Conference, Cusi stressed that “in such a tight race against
time and development, concerted efforts to drive continued innovation in the
energy sector is of utmost importance.”
He reiterated that the
country’s energy needs by 2040, “would increase by over ten-fold, as we will be
needing an additional power capacity of 43,765 megawatts.”
When he started his
stint at the DOE in 2016, he promised of up to 10,000MW of power project
developments being advanced as “committed” ventures and shall be starting
construction phases toward the end of the Duterte administration in 2022.
Of that power
investment pledge, the current DOE leadership accomplished very little at this
point – with only 600MW of remaining capacity additions in the roll of
committed capacities, as the rest of developments started by his predecessors
are now part of the country’s power supply.
And given the 4-5
gestation period for power projects – primarily those of reliable baseload
scale, the department is now manifestly racing against a very rigid timeframe.
Cusi’s remaining term
is expected to be devoted cornering the committed power capacities, to
guarantee that the legacy of the Duterte administration is not shoving the
country into another round of power crisis.
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