“Power demand will continuously grow, whether accelerated or tempered, and the supply should increase with it,” Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines Chief Operating Officer Robinson P. Descanzo said at a virtual briefing Friday.
IEMOP is projecting 929.5 MW of additional capacity in Luzon, 34.67MW in the Visayas, and 143.60 MW in Mindanao. Currently, Luzon’s registered capacity is 17,448 MW, Visayas 3,651, and Mindanao 4,231, according to the power plants’ data submissions to the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. “This is a bit problematic. We are caught in the middle as coal-fired power plants are being stopped. In fact, these coal developers, our big players… are already rethinking their options and removing coal from their portfolios,” Mr. Decanzo said.
Mr. Descanzo added that many projects powered by solar, biomass, wind, and battery energy storage systems energies are still awaiting commissioning.