The bid to ensure the availability of clean and sustainable power gained traction this year as the Department of Energy (DOE) pursued programs that encourage more investments into renewable energy (RE).

The share of RE to the total energy mix is already around 32 percent, near the 35 percent goal by 2030. The target is to further increase this to 50 percent by 2040.

DOE earlier said around 956 megawatts (MW) of new power generation capacity have been added to the national grid as of last November, and is complemented by 16 MW of new energy storage capacity in the Luzon and Visayas grids.

Last June, DOE released the Notice of Award (NOA) for the winning bidders for the GEA-3, which are expected to produce around 6,600 MW capacity until 2035, while winners for the GEA-4 were announced last November, with the projects expected to produce over 10,000MW of new capacities until 2029.

Energy Secretary Sharon Garin has expressed confidence in the sustained rise of RE capacity in the country following the two green energy auctions (GEA) held this year, and amidst the termination of eight RE service constraints this year due to proponents’ failure to deliver or submit work program requirements.

Citing measures implemented during the term of former Energy Secretary Rafael Lotilla, who was appointed as Environment and Natural Resources Secretary last May, Garin said the DOE “started with good foundations already, and continuing that, you cannot go wrong.”

A big part of the country suffered from devastating calamities this year and the lessons from these experiences will be strengthened further next year, she said.

“My basic gauge is that there is a quick response of DOE in typhoon-affected areas. I’m not sure if you remember, before, like Masbate or Catanduanes, it would take six months to restore. Now, barely one month, we’re able to finish the tasks,” she said.

Garin attributed this to closer coordination among energy-sector players such as the National Electrification Administration (NEA), the Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association (Philreca), the distribution utilities, power plant operators, National Power Corporation (Napocor), Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM), and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).

She said the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is also a major player in the continued improvement of the domestic energy sector.

“Results for this year is good. I’m quite proud of DOE. There are many innovations that we have shown to the country, and we’ve responded to the heed of the President,” she said.

Additional focus for 20265 is “cleaner energy and energy security.”

“Hopefully, we can scale down on the coal, especially diesel. And most especially in our islands because they only have around 7 percent renewables,” she pointed out. “We just need to find a balance.”

More indigenous sources will be explored, he said, citing the need for additional gas and petroleum potentials.

“The Philippines has lots of potential and I understand it will take years. But at least we start already so that we’re not dependent on the international market,” she added.

Electrification

NEA Administrator Antonio Mariano Almeda bids for additional measures to uplift rural communities.

“We need to make our services improved and reliable. That’s all that really matters… And that is one thing I want to inculcate in each and everyone… Let’s shift the paradigm already. We cannot keep doing what is good enough,” he said in a recent yearend gathering.

This year, one of NEA’s achievements is the electrification of geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDAs) under the “Digital Bayanihan” campaign of the Marcos government.

Among those that benefited are schools, achieved in coordination with the Department of Education (DepEd), including the last mile school Datu Saldong Domino Elementary School in Sitio Tagpangi, Barangay Simbalan, in San Buenavista, Agusan del Norte.

NEA also addressed power reliability issues in Zamboanga by establishing the Task Force Metro Zamboanga to institute reforms at the Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative, Inc. (ZAMCELCO), and joined hands with the DOE and the Napocor to roll out concrete measures to address chronic power supply constraints.

It also entered into a memorandum of agreement with the Maharlika Investment Corporation (MIC), the Palawan Electric Cooperative (PALECO), and the provincial government of Palawan to modernize the island’s power distribution system. (PNA)