The Department of Energy (DOE) has recommended 86 power plant projects, both new and existing, to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
In a report by Business World, DOE presented certificates of endorsement (COE) to the generation facilities that offered a capacity of over 3,000 megawatts (MW).
58 of the 86 projects are operated using conventional energy sources while the remaining are powered by renewable energy (RE).
Eight solar, 15 hydroelectric, three geothermal, three coal-fired, and two biomass facilities were endorsed to the ERC. Meanwhile, 54 of the total are diesel-powered plants.
ERC Chairperson and CEO Monalisa C. Dimalanta said that these projects will be given certificates of compliance (COC) which would also serve as permits to operate.
Dimalanta continued by stating that the COE and COC issued to coal-fired power plants will be limited following the moratorium earlier issued. Furthermore, no new COEs will be granted for coal plants, except for expansion projects if already authorized by the Philippine Energy Plan.
The ERC chief added that while RE projects are typically smaller in scale, there are more of them to meet the system’s capacity needs.
RE took up 22% of the country’s power mix at the end of 2022, with coal assuming almost 60%. To be able to reach the 50% target by 2040, the DOE believes that 52, 826 MW capacity of RE is needed.
