Published June 11, 2017, 10:00 PM By Myrna M.
Velasco
Anchoring it on the “Dutertenomics”
infrastructure build-up paradigm, Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi has
identified new sites where upcoming power projects could be installed for the
targeted 43,765 megawatts capacity until year 2040 in which investments could
reach a high of P5.4 trillion.
“We have already indicated the ideal
locations of the needed generation capacities, after considering all the
important factors,” he said. At that level of targeted capacity, the scale of
investments may reach as high as P5.4 trillion at the rule-of-thumb power
project development cost of $2.5 million per megawatt.
For Luzon grid, the best possible
sites, according to the energy chief, are in the National Capital Region (NCR)
and Bicol region. In the Visayas, portended viable areas for power project developments
would be in Cebu, Bohol, and Samar; while for the southernmost power grid of
Mindanao, project siting could be targeted in Zamboanga Sibugay, Sultan Kudarat
and Agusan del Sur.
The energy agenda of the Duterte
administration casts power capacity ramp up for the industrialization path that
it has been envisioning for the country – based on the 70:20:10 ratio on
installations for baseload, mid-merit and peaking capacity needs of the system.
As set on blueprint, this will call
for increase in baseload capacity to 25, 265 megawatts within the planning
horizon; mid-merit capacity to be reaching 14,500MW; and peaking capacity of
4,000MW. Cusi, however, reckoned that beyond the development sphere of power
generation facilities, there is another critical component of the power system
that must be decisively addressed – the transmission segment of the electricity
system.
In particular, the energy department
is batting for fast-track implementation of the Visayas-Mindanao grid
interconnection project; as well as the overall reinforcements and upgrades of
the country’s electricity transmission network.
Others in the department’s
indispensable ‘work-in-progress list’ would be putting up the alternative gas
supply route and infrastructure chain with the much-anticipated decline or
depletion of extractable gas reserves from the Malampaya field; and equally
crucial would be addressing the round-the-clock electricity service needs of
off-grid areas.
“To ensure the continuity of power
supply from natural gas-fired power plants to anticipate the eventual depletion
of the Malampaya gas field by 2024, the DOE has tasked the Philippine National
Oil Company (PNOC) to build an integrated LNG receiving and distribution
facilities with a reserve initial power plant capacity of 200MW,” he said.
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