MANILA – The Department of Energy (DOE) said the country will have an additional 4,078 megawatts (MW) from committed power projects until 2022, the last two years of the Duterte administration.
In its accomplishment report released Monday, the DOE said the bulk of the new capacity or around 2,518 MW will come online this year and 1,560 MW will be ready by 2022.
In terms of sources, the majority of the additional power sources will come from coal-fired power plants with a total of committed capacity of 2,521 MW from 2020 to 2022.
This is followed by oil with 415 MW new capacity, natural gas with an additional 650 MW, biomass with 252 MW, and solar with 240 MW.
The DOE said the administration has pursued energy security for the country to support the needs of the growing economy.
In 2019, the country’s installed capacity reached 25,531 MW, growing by 19 percent from 21,423 MW in 2016.
This means power projects approved between 2016 and 2019 added 4,106 MW of installed capacity.
On the other hand, dependable capacity also increased to 22,736 MW in 2019 from 19,097 in 2016.
“Renewable-based plants recorded a share of 29 percent or 7,399 MW in the country’s total installed capacity in 2019. Among the RE-based power plants, hydropower and geothermal has the largest shares at 15.8 percent or 3,760 MW and 8.1 percent or 1,928 MW, respectively,” DOE said.
DOE underscored that the government’s policies for pursuing clean and green energy made the Philippines have the highest share of renewable energy (RE) in its primary energy supply.
With RE accounting for 32.8 percent of the country’s energy supply mix in 2019, the Philippines has met early its commitment to Asean Plan of Action on Energy Cooperation to raise RE share in the energy mix by 23 percent by 2025.
Meanwhile, DOE said that from 2019 until June 2020, 133 certificates of energy projects of national significance were issued with investments amounting to PHP386.86 billion.
These projects are also expected to generate additional jobs of 13,419 upon full operation. (PNA)
