Phl, China to collaborate on strengthening power sector

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines and China will collaborate on strengthening the Philippine power industry after the recently concluded meeting of President Duterte’s Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) with the Communist Party of China in Beijing, according to Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi.

“Now we are developing this collaboration with the National Energy Administration. NEA is like the DOE of China. So I had a meeting with the minister and we did some discussion, and we will put everything in writing in an MOU (memorandum of understanding),” Cusi said in a recent interview.

Areas of collaboration include training, development of an energy mix and new technologies, advancement of transmission systems, among others, Cusi said.

Initial collaboration could start on training of manpower in all sectors of the power industry, such as transmission systems, Cusi said.

“The fastest we can start collaborating on is training. On systems, [we’ll see] how they did it, how they’re doing it,” he said.

“What we are trying to say is this is what we need, this is how we’re approaching it. So we are looking at how they are approaching it. We’ll see how we can both enhance and learn from each other. It’s not a one way street,” the energy secretary said.

In terms of project development, the Philippine and Chinese delegation have also discussed partially the development of the gas industry which could be done through a government-to-government (G2G) scheme or private undertaking.

“During my meeting with the minister of NEA, he said he’s making available the China corporations to help because we’re looking for investors who will invest in LNG (liquefied natural gas). President (Reuben) Lista of PNOC was also there, saying maybe we can do a G2G or private undertaking,” Cusi said.

The development of an LNG hub was earlier announced by Secretary Cusi to meet the country’s requirements beyond the life of the Malampaya deep water gas-to-power project in Palawan and to provide an emergency source of power when the Luzon grid loses supply due to plant outages.