TAGUIG CITY, Jan. 15 The Department of Energy (DOE) today led the opening of the three-day virtual Energy Secure Philippines (ESP) Activity Co-Design Workshop hosted by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The ESP seeks to spur inclusive economic growth and resilient development by increasing private investments to promote advance technology deployment and boost the resilience of the energy sector against sectoral shocks and stresses.
“The US remains a solid ally and one of the country’s major trading partners. We are hopeful that our collaboration to promote energy security and development will be sustained and even enhanced. This activity comes at an opportune time for the energy sector, as it plays a crucial role in promoting sustainable economic development, specially now that the country is gearing to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic,” Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi stated.
Energy Assistant Secretary Redentor E. Delola has called the attention of the generation companies (GenCos) on “a lot of plant outages in the past few weeks.” At this rate, Delola is not optimistic of a brownout-free summer season.
“Considering the existing maintenance schedules of plants, we may have to realign our activities for the year to ensure the level of sufficient supply,” he said, adding that some of the plant downtimes could stretch into the summer.
The DOE does not see an encouraging power supply system, especially given forecasts of economic recovery this year.
And for that, the DOE summoned the power firms this early so they can sort out preparations in the entire supply chain before demand would pick up during the hotter months.
The GNPower Kauswagan coal-fired power plant, as well as eight other projects, have secured approval from the Department of Energy to conduct a system impact..
Published December 31, 2020, 5:00 AM
Electricity consumers will be greeted with a “Happy New Year rate hike” as they will need to pay more as subsidy to renewable energy (RE) projects via the feed-in-tariff allowance (FIT-All) line item in the electric bills that had been jacked up to P0.0983 per kilowatt hour (kwh), almost double if compared to the current pass-on rate of P0.0495 per kwh.
Energy Regulatory Commission
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That was based on the approval given by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on the FIT-All rate petition of RE fund administrator National Transmission Corporation (TransCo) to account for adjustments in calendar year 2020. The FIT-All increase will be reflected in the bills by January.
This will secure the reliability of power transmission services in the entire Mindanao.
As one of NGCP s critical projects, the Mindanao backbone will connect bulk generation from the northern and southern parts of Mindanao and ensure stable and continuous power from Lanao del Norte, passing through Misamis Oriental and Bukidnon, all the way to Davao del Sur and Davao Occidental.
Among the generating facilities which will connect to the line are the GNPower Kauswagan Clean Coal-Fired Power Plant, Therma South Incorporated Power Plant, and San Miguel Consolidated Power Corporation, with a total combined capacity of 1,440MW.
With an ERC-approved cost of P7.09 billion, the project involves the construction of the Matanao-Toril 230kV and Toril-Bunawan 230kV transmission lines, the upgrade of the Balo-i-Villanueva-Maramag- Bunawan line from 138kV to 230kV, as well as the upgrade of its substations in Malita, Matanao, Toril, Bunawan, Balo-i, Villanueva, and Maramag.