DOE, Mindoro work on energy plan

Riza T. Olchondra
Philippine Daily Inquirer

2:03 AM | Monday, October 27th, 201

The Department of Energy (DOE) and the local governments of Mindoro island are working on long-term plans to stabilize power supply in Luzon and the Visayas, the Department of Energy said Friday.

The Mindoro Energy Plan is set to be finished early next year, the DOE announced.

The plan will cover a mix of technologies for investors to tap once the local governments start to build the power generation infrastructure in Mindoro.

Mindoro is an island-grid being groomed to become a renewable energy (RE) hub. It is set to be linked to Luzon’s transmission network by 2023 through the proposed Batangas-Mindoro (BatMin) interconnection line.

In crafting the plan, the DOE’s Energy Policy and Planning Bureau-Planning Division (EPPB-PD) organized plant tours to boost local planners’ knowledge on the different energy technologies available in the Philippines.

Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla led the Mindoro Energy Technical Working Group (ME-TWG) in a series of plant visits throughout the Visayas, the DOE said.

The group’s itinerary included Cebu Energy Development Corp.’s Toledo coal-fired power plant in Cebu, and the Tongonan geothermal plant of Energy Development Corp.

The ME-TWG earlier expressed an interest in surveying different plants in the country to see if such technologies could be applied in their province.

Petilla said that, during the tour of the facilities, he noted that the most recent technologies are already available in the country.

“We cannot only visit normal plants as we are gearing toward long-term energy plans. What we need is to explore the new plants that employ the best technologies within our reach. From there, we can be assured that the energy plan will not be wasted,” Petilla explained.

Luzon is presently linked to the main grid of the Visayas, but further connections are being planned to promote sharing and to stabilize the energy supply in both main grids, as well as the island-grids that may be connected to them.

The DOE said that the Mindoro Energy Plan was the brainchild of Petilla, Oriental Mindoro Gov. Alfonso Umali Jr., and Occidental Mindoro Gov. Mario Gene Mendiola. source