‘Philippines needs to maximize existing coal power plants’

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines needs to maximize the existing conventional coal-fired plants to meet growing power demand, given the lower efficiency of renewable sources, according to an executive of Aboitiz Power Corp.

In a recent Asia Power Forum, AboitizPower chief corporate services officer Carlos Aboitiz said renewable energy (RE) sources such as solar and onshore wind have lower capacity factors compared to high-generating coal plants.

Solar and onshore wind sources have a capacity factor of 20 percent and 31 percent, respectively, while that of coal plants range between 57.5 percent and 68.5 percent, he noted.

A capacity factor is the ratio between the actual electricity output over a specific period of time and the potential nominal output if a generating unit runs at continuous full power.

Aboitiz, likewise, debunked claims that renewables are less costly to use for power generation.

“Often, we hear pronouncements that renewables are cheaper than their fossil fuel counterparts. Unfortunately, the math doesn’t add up,” he said.

A full accounting, he explained, should include the costs of running the power grid reliably, taking into account the intermittency and dispatchability.

For instance, companies are usually burdened with additional costs to put up storage and backup power systems as RE sources like solar, wind and hydro could not provide the much-needed reliability.

The country’s energy sales are expected to double in 13 years, with peak demand and electricity sales growing by 5.19 percent and 5.49 percent, respectively, per year until 2050.

As a result, the growth of a reliable and accessible power supply becomes more crucial than ever, as this can also help boost the country’s macroeconomic targets, Aboitiz said.

Earlier, the Department of Energy said more coal-fired power plants are set to come online within the next three years.

The DOE clarified that these projects were proposed and approved before the implementation of a coal moratorium late in 2020 that barred the processing of applications for greenfield coal facilities.

While the country heavily relies on coal, the agency emphasized that the absolute amount of generation and corresponding emissions are “minimal” compared to those of China and Indonesia.