AC Energy eyes 150-MW diesel power plant in Rizal

MANILA, Philippines — The energy business group of Ayala Corp. is looking to develop a 150-megawatt (MW) diesel power plant in Pililia, Rizal to serve the peaking requirements of the Luzon grid, its top official said.

AC Energy CEO John Eric Francia said  the group is now going through pre-development process for the diesel power plant.

“[We’re now in] permitting, [getting] ECC (environmental compliance certificate). We’re doing the studies now. We’re hopeful that we’ll get to start the construction as soon as we complete all the requirements,” he said.

In October 2017, AC Energy DevCo Inc. was cleared to conduct a grid impact study (GIS) on a 300-MW diesel modular generator set power plant in Pililia, Rizal.

AC Energy DevCo is affiliated with Ayala Energy Holdings Inc., which took over Bronzeoak Philippines Inc. It owns  solar projects in Negros — San Carlos Solar Energy, Negros Island Solar Energy and Monte Solar Energy.

Francia said the peaking plant will be able to complement the intermittent supply being provided by renewable energy (RE) projects once RE policies are in place.

“We believe the country will need more peaking and reserve, ancillary capacity…especially in a world where you inject more renewables,” he said.

“This is in line with thinking that RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standards) will succeed. You will see intermittency…and you need ancillary for that,” Francia said.

A provision of the Renewable Energy Act of 2008, RPS mandates power industry players to produce and source a certain percentage of electricity from RE sources such as biomass, waste-to-energy technology, wind energy, solar energy, run-of-river hydroelectric power systems, impounding hydroelectric power systems, ocean energy and geothermal energy.

Last month, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi signed a circular which prescribes the rules and guidelines in the establishment of RPS for on-grid areas which mandates distribution utilities (DUs), retail electricity suppliers including those power generation companies serving directly-connection customers to source or produce a certain percentage of their electricity requirements from eligible RE resources. 

The RPS for on-grid areas is initially anchored on the country’s aspirational target of 35 percent RE share in the energy mix by 2030, which will be reviewed under the forthcoming updating of the National Renewable Energy Program.

The DOE has set 2018 and 2019 as transition years to prepare the power industry in developing their compliance plans to the minimum RPS requirements.