Published
By Myrna M. Velasco
From a targeted 1,000-megawatt
portfolio of renewable energy in the medium term, the power generation
investment arm of utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) indicated
that it is now at the process of firming up 350MW of RE capacity installations.
“In terms of the commitment
of the group to expand our renewable energy projects, we’re lining up in the
immediate future which is as early as 2021, 350MW of RE projects that we are
almost near conclusion,” Meralco PowerGen (MGen) President Rogelio L. Singson
said.
Nevertheless, he apprised reporters that he cannot name the targeted partners
yet because “we are covered by NDAs (non-disclosure agreements). So we can’t
disclose until we sign the agreements with them.”
To bring the RE
projects to commercial fruition in 2021, Singson specified that agreements with
partners and final investment decisions (FID) must be concluded within the
year.
Singson just hinted
that these targeted capacity build-up will be more on solar installations; as
well as microgrid ventures – the second investment path is considerably a
follow-through to its parent firm’s microgrid developments in Isla Verde in
Batangas last year and recently that of the Cagbalete island in Quezon
province.
Meralco has been
casting on blueprint diversified projects in the RE sector –namely solar, wind
(both onshore and offshore targets), hydro, biomass and microgrid ventures.
On the parent firm’s end, company executives noted that it will be needing 500
to 600 megawatts of RE capacity in its supply portfolio to comply with the
requirements under the Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), or that Department
of Energy-issued policy requiring distribution utilities to source certain
percentage of their supply from RE generated capacity.
As assessed, the actual
need of the system for RE capacity additions will kick off in year 2021, hence,
project decisions and developments are seen advancing between this year to 2020
– at least for solar farm installations.
Nevertheless, Singson
qualified that these expected incursion of more RE in the grid must be suitably
underpinned by reinforcements in the country’s transmission system – and it
should conform with system build-up that will be aligned with the integration
of more variable renewable energy (VRE) capacities.
In other countries, he
noted that transmission networks had been bolstered up with ultra-high voltage
(UHV) lines with carrying capacity of about 1,000 megawatts – including China
which has plunged into massive RE developments in recent years.
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