Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla, in his presentation during the Visayas Power Summit, said the outlook for both the Luzon and Visayas grids remains positive, and existing and upcoming projects will provide enough to meet the demand until 2019 in the Visayas.
For the Visayas grid, committed projects will provide a total of 310 megawatts (mw) from this year until 2017. Indicative projects are projected to provide 433 mw from this year until 2019.
A project is “committed” if all the permits and clearances, including those from local governments, have been acquired and the project’s financial terms are about to be closed. It is considered “indicative”, according to a DOE primer, if it is at different stages of project development “prior to financial closing.”
Petilla also said the agency continues to approve the construction of coal-fired power plants because there is no other cheap and sustainable alternative for now.
Cost
While there are investors willing to construct renewable energy plants, the generation cost is very high and they can hardly get power distribution utilities to enter into supply contracts with them, he said.
Petilla, however, assured yesterday there will be no power interruption in the country during the May 13, 2013 election.
“We assure the public that we will have no shortfall of power in May, especially during Election Day. We at the DOE don’t want to be blamed for a failure of election due to power failure,” Petilla said.
In his presentation, Secretary Petilla said there are investors who want to construct solar plants but are finding it difficult to get potential distributors.
“If your price is P10 per kilowatt hour (kwh) and Kepco (in Naga City) is selling at P4 from its coal-fired power plants, who will buy your power generated from solar?” Petilla said, as an exaple.
Among solar power investors, he said, the proposed price is P9.68 per kwh.
Information
“You build a solar plant with a guarantee that the power grid will buy it in the next 20 years. If we want additional plants like solar for sustainable supply, we can distribute the excess price to the consumers. Everybody will pay for it and that’s in the law,” Petilla said.
Apart from discussing the Visayas power supply and demand outlook, he also spoke about the DOE website www.kuryente.org.ph, which provides more information on the power situation and the cost of power.
The summit was sponsored by DOE and three Regional Development Councils (RDC) in the Visayas, and held in the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu City.
“We will institutionalize this website that will go beyond my term as secretary so the people can have immediate access to information about power,” Petilla said.
According to the DOE, committed projects in the Visayas grid include the 8mw hydro power plant of Sunwest Water & Electric Co. Inc. in Sibalom, Antique; the 20mw geothermal plant of Energy Development Corp. in Nasuji, Valencia, Negros Oriental; and the 135mw coal-fired power plant of Palm Thermal Consolidated Holdings Corp. in Concepcion, Iloilo.
Challenges
Among the indicative projects are the 50MW wind power plant of Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp. in Nabas, Aklan; the 54mw wind power plant of Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp. in San Lorenzo, Guimaras Island; and the 18mw biomass project of San Carlos BioPower Inc. in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.
Petilla earlier said only Mindanao is facing a power shortage, although demand in the region will be met by 2015. The problem is how to provide the capacity for this year until end-2014.
DOE data show that committed projects from 2013-15 in Luzon totaled to 869 mw, while indicative projects from this year until 2020 will provide capacity of about 6,819 mw.
Based on DOE’s supply-demand outlook for Luzon, the demand will be well-provided by existing capacity plus committed and indicative projects until 2022.
Despite some gains, Petilla said investors are wary of taking a chance on the country’s power sector due to uncertainties in the demand forecasts, and bureaucratic processes in securing national and local clearances, permits, and licenses. Other factors are the difficulty in contracting with off-takers and right-of-way problems.