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Clean break needed for Philippines’

power sector after coal moratorium

PHILIPPINES THE Philippines’ moratorium on new green- “While we have initially embraced a tech-
field coal power plants, announced in October, nology-neutral policy, our periodic assessment
marks a clean break with past policies and will of our country’s energy requirements is paving
allow considerable modernisation and new the way for innovative adaptations in our policy
technology. directions,” said Cusi.
The decision by Energy Secretary Alfonso Ahmed explained that imported coal plants,
Cusi to use renewables to drive the country’s the mainstay of the Philippines energy system
energy future will require up to $30bn of invest- to-date, are unable to operate below a minimum
ment, according to a report from the green-lean- stable value due to their inherent inflexibility. As
ing Institute for Energy Economics and Financial a result, they are forced to shut off. In May 2020
Analysis (IEEFA). alone, coal-fired power units were responsible
“The Philippines power market’s problems for 60% of outages.
have been exacerbated by the pandemic, and “Leadership from the Energy Secretary and
now Super Typhoon Rolly urgently raises the Finance Secretary makes clear that the Philip-
need to shift to distributed modular renewable pines aims to build a more cost-competitive and
energy and resilient grids,” said IEEGA energy resilient energy future by shifting to clean energy
finance analyst Sara Jane Ahmed. resources and green technologies,” Ahmed said.
“The inflexibility of key power grids has led to Ahmed said that the Department of Energy
regular outages and increased disruption due to (DOE) and the National Renewable Energy
more volatile demand patterns,” she added. Board should immediately update the National
A move away from coal is a major change of Renewable Energy Program (NREP) to reflect
policy for the country, where coal generated half the policy shift from centralised baseload plants
of all electricity in 2019. to distributed generation and the preference for
There is also a 12-GW pipeline of new coal indigenous and renewable energy.
projects at various stages of development, which The NREP should also be incorporated into
would double the country’s existing 12-GW coal the Philippine Energy Plan as well as the Power
capacity. Development Plan (PDP).
The moratorium could stop around 8 GW Major utilities such as San Miguel and
of this 12 GW, according to data from Global Meralco both still have plans for coal projects,
Energy Monitor analysed by think-tank E3G. although they are also developers of renewables
The government has not yet revealed which projects.
projects would be abandoned. A key driver could be the Energy Regulatory
Cusi said that his government wanted to Commission (ERC), which must make various
develop a “resilient and flexible” power mix, regulatory changes to support the DOE’s new
especially given the need to boost any post-coro- green policy.™
navirus (COVID-19) economic recovery.

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 44 04•November•2020