Power producers laud government policies on energy

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Independent Power Producers Association Inc. (PIPPA) has expressed support to the government’s energy priorities, policies and programs as efforts to achieve full household electrification by the end of the Marcos administration remain in full swing.

PIPPA, an organization of the country’s energy generation companies, also lauded President Marcos’ commitment to pursue reforms in the energy sector as embodied in his second State of the Nation Address.

“The results have been remarkable, amazing, and truly refreshing. PIPPA’s member generators pledge their support to the President’s declared priorities, such as the relentless pursuit of total electrification, the accelerated realization of his green energy goal, and the push for more gas exploration on a national scale,” PIPPA said in a statement.

Marcos said his administration is exerting all efforts to address delays in the grids’ interconnection and admitted there are 68 grid connections “much delayed” based on the count of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), noting that the government is conducting a performance review of its private concessionaire, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines.

PIPPA welcomed the ongoing performance review of the NGCP, saying they “look forward to working with NGCP as a critical partner not only of the generation sector, but together with the distribution sector, for the achievement of a truly unified grid that will be adequate, open, responsive and non-discriminatory.”

PIPPA also acknowledged “the unrelenting efforts of the Department of Energy that have unlocked some bottlenecks, thus making it possible to not only have new power plants, but more significantly, 126 renewable energy contracts with a potential total capacity of 31,000 megawatts.”

The President in his second SONA stressed that “renewable energy is the way forward,” noting his administration is “aggressively promoting renewables” in order for RE to provide “35 percent share in the power mix by 2030, and then on to 50 percent by 2040.”

PIPPA said they look forward to working in earnest with the DOE “for the purpose of achieving long-term and strategic energy security that will not only look at new power generating capacities, but one that will also help ensure that the capacities that we presently have that are already clean, reliable and affordable, are fully utilized and enabled to continue providing for both national development and consumer welfare.”

PIPPA said they will continue to collaborate with our policy makers and regulators in helping ensure that the energy transition will include mechanisms that will assist existing industry players to make the transition.

“We likewise request the support of DOE and ERC as we undertake efforts and commit significant investments in the field of new technologies and/or fuel sources, such as energy storage, LNG, hydrogen, ammonia, and a lot of other possibilities,” PIPPA said.