The Department of Energy (DOE) called on renewable energy (RE) players to start putting up new power plants in two years to meet the requirements of power distributors to source a percentage of electricity from renewable sources.
Based on a report from The Philippine Star, DOE Renewable Energy Management Bureau (REMB) senior Science specialist Jonathan Teodosio said distribution utilities (DUs) in the country are compliant with the requirement of Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) until 2022.
The RPS requires DUs, electric cooperatives (ECs), and retail electricity suppliers (RES) to source a percentage to source a percentage of electricity requirements from RE sources. The RPS level is currently set at one percent until next year.
Teodosio said this is the time for investors to invest and meet the requirements under the RPS rules.
According to data from the DOE, there will be 30 power distributors in Luzon, 22 in Visayas, and 19 in Mindanao that need to revamp their RE sourcing to meet the requirements of RPS come 2023. It also showed that the distributors would need 29,610 megawatt-hours (MWh) by then.
Meanwhile, the Manila Electric Company (MERALCO) and the Visayan Electric Company (VECO), the country’s largest DUs, would need to boost their share of RE supply by 2025 and 2024, respectively.
Teodosio added that the RPS composite team is looking into the proposal that raises the RPS requirement to 2.92% starting 2023 to achieve the goal of reaching 35% of RE share in the country’s generation mix.
