RE firms urged to build new power plants by 2023

MANILA, Philippines — Renewable energy players should start putting up new power plants by 2023 to be able to meet the requirements of power distributors to source a percentage of electricity from renewable energy (RE) sources, according to the Department of Energy.

In a webinar, DOE-Renewable Energy Management Bureau (REMB) senior Science research specialist Jonathan Teodosio said DUs across the country are compliant with the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requirement until 2022.

Under the RPS, DUs, electric cooperatives (ECs), and retail electricity suppliers (RES) are prescribed to source a percentage of electricity requirements from RE sources. The RPS level is currently set at one percent until 2022.

“All DUs and participants are still compliant until 2022. The shortfall level is anticipated to take place only in 2023,” Teodosio said.

“For the investors, if they are looking for windows of investment, this is the time to invest to meet the requirements under the RPS rules,” he said.

Based on the latest DOE data, there will be 30 power distributors in Luzon, 22 in Visayas and 19 in Mindanao needing to ramp up their RE sourcing to meet the RPS requirement starting 2023. The DOE data also showed these power distributors would need 29,610 megawatt-hours (MWh) by 2023.

Meanwhile, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and Visayan Electric Co. Inc. (VECO)–the country’s largest and second largest private DUs, respectively–would need to increase their RE supply share by 2025 and 2024, respectively.

“These are market opportunities for investors to build RE plants,” Teodosio said.

He said the RPS composite team (CT) is evaluating the proposal to raise the RPS requirement to 2.92 percent starting 2023 to achieve the goal of reaching 35 percent RE share in the generation mix.