DOE: Over 6,800 MW projects to boost power supply this year
MANIA, Philippines — The Philippines is in a much better power situation in 2025.
That’s the assurance from Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla, who is counting on power projects activated in 2024 and the over 6,800 megawatts (MW) of capacity expected to boost the grid this year.
Conventional and renewable energy (RE) projects with a combined capacity of 6,841 MW are set to come online within the year, according to latest data from the Department of Energy (DOE).
Renewables make up 72 percent or 4,945 MW of total committed projects for 2025, while conventional sources such as coal, oil and natural gas account for the remaining 1,896 MW.
Committed projects refer to those that have secured firm financial closure, are already under construction or have been awarded through the government’s green energy auction rounds.
The bulk of RE capacity will come from solar facilities at 3,930 MW, followed by wind (773 MW), hydropower (107 MW), geothermal (104 MW) and biomass (31 MW).
This is expected to provide a significant boost to the country’s goal of expanding the share of renewables in the energy mix to 35 percent by 2030 from the current 22 percent.
For conventional projects, the majority of the capacity will come from natural gas at 1,320 MW, with coal and oil-based sources adding 500 MW and 76 MW, respectively.
To complement these generation facilities, 330 MW of battery energy storage system (BESS) projects are also scheduled for completion this year, the DOE said.
A BESS facility stores excess electricity generated during low-demand periods and supplies it back to the grid during peak demand.
“We are in a much better situation this year than we were compared to last year,” Lotilla said.
He draws his confidence from several projects that “have come online not only in terms of new generation capacity but particularly in terms of the transmission lines that are vital to bring the supply to the market.”
According to the DOE, 1,400 MW of baseload capacity became commercially operational in 2024, with additional capacity undergoing testing and commissioning.
The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, the private sector-led transmission operator, also completed several big-ticket projects last year that further improved the country’s power backbone.
These projects include the Mindanao-Visayas interconnection project, the Cebu-Negros-Panay 230-kiloVolt backbone and the Mariveles-Hermosa-San Jose 500-kV transmission line.
Given these positive developments, Lotilla has assured the public that the country has sufficient supply to meet the projected peak demand this year.
“While it is an election year, it is also not an El Niño year. In fact, it is seen as a La Niña year and therefore, the constraints that we saw last year would not be as great as this year,” he said.
Last year, 78 alert notices–16 red and 62 yellow–were raised across the country, the majority of which were in Luzon.
A yellow alert is issued when the power supply is on the verge of becoming insufficient. It means there is a tight supply, but there is still enough capacity to meet consumer demand.
A red alert, on the other hand, is raised when the power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the grid’s regulatory requirements.
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