Gov’t, private sector draw blueprint for greener Mindanao

MANILA, Philippines - Key players from the government and the private sector are drawing up a blueprint to make Mindanao a greener region.

During a recent meeting of the Mindanao Power Monitoring Committee (MPMC) held at the National Power Corp. (Napocor), officials underscored the importance of advocating renewable energy (RE) as a prominent source of electricity for the island-region.

Secretary Luwalhati Antonino, chairperson of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), said compared to the situation last year and the years before, the state of Mindanao power today had seen significant improvement.

She said majority of the region did not have rotating blackouts as reported by the Association of Mindanao Rural Electric Cooperatives. 

However, Antonino said the expected entry of more baseload capacities from coal-fired power plants totaling 2,000 megawatts until 2018 should be complemented by accelerated deployment of renewable energy projects such as hydro, biomass, geothermal, and solar, among others.

Based on the monitoring of the One-Stop Facilitation and Monitoring of MPMC, there are 231 RE projects in the pipeline spread across Mindanao that could potentially generate at least 2,419 MW of sustainable power for the region between 2020 and 2025.

 “A diversified mix of fossil and renewable energy sources is integral to our overall strategy of pursuing balanced and holistic economic growth in Mindanao,” said Romeo Montenegro, MinDA’s director for Investment Promotions and Public Affairs.

He added that pursuing RE development is also aligned with the MinDA’s Mindanao 2020 Peace and Development Framework Plan, which recognizes power as a major enabling factor for socio-economic development.