Power Sector Still Import-Dependent On Coal For Power Generation

Manila Bulletin
By MYRNA M. VELASCO
January 31, 2012, 8:00am


MANILA, Philippines — The country’s coal-fired plants still logged considerable jump in fuel importation last year given that domestic production cannot support the industry’s demand yet.


It can be gleaned from Department of Energy (DoE) documents that the power sector remains the biggest end-user of coal on its needs for electricity generation.


Despite the reported increase in the production of the Semirara Mining Corporation, it was gathered from energy officials that domestic supply is still very much in a ‘catch-up mode’ vis-à-vis demand.


The total volume of run-of-mine coal importation hovered at 10.96 million metric tons. Roughly 10.89 million MT were sourced from Indonesia; while 68,169MT were from Vietnam.


Total consumption in 2011 had been placed at 14.234 million MT; and the lion’s share went to the power sector at 10.58 million MT. The other major endusers are cement with 3.103 million MT of demand; while industrial and direct process firms cornered 550,838 MT.


DOE documents showed that indigenous coal production reached 7.611 million metric tons last year, and that should have been half already of domestic demand during the period. Concerns such as quality and technology compatibility, however, remained as hurdles when it comes to utilizing them for power plants.


Of the figure, P7.190 million MT accounted for the Semirara output. In the DOE documents, it was shown though that the company also targeted offshore markets as buyers, primarily China and Thailand.


The other domestic coal production areas are those in Zamboanga Sibugay, Cebu, Batan Island in Albay, Surigao and Negros, among others.


To pare the country’s dependence on imports in the coming years, the energy department has been aggressively enticing investments for coal exploration activities in various areas nationwide.


It has just offered around 30 blocks under Philippine Energy Contracting Round 4 (PECR-4), with hopes that these may eventually yield outputs of commercial scale.