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Friday, March 29, 2024

Power consumption soars in 2016

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The Philippines saw an unprecedented 10.2 percent growth in electricity demand last year driven by higher temperatures and increased economic activity, according to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Philippine Power Situation Report for 2016.

DOE said the higher electricity consumption to 90,797,891 megawatthours (MWh) in 2016 from 82,413,213 MWh was driven by the strong El Nino which affected the county in the first half last year.

“This increase is primarily driven by the growth of residential consumption at 12.7 percent from 22,747,049 MWh (2015) to 25,631,254 MWh (2016) due to high requirements for cooling system,” it said.

Mindanao’s electricity consumption grew the highest last year at 12 percent boosted by the own-use consumption of newly operational and large coal-fired power plants.

Luzon’s peak demand, meanwhile, reached an all-time high at 9,726 megawatts which occurred on May 3, 2016 at 1:52 pm, higher than the 2015 peak demand of 8,928 MW.

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As a result of the increase in demand, several yellow and red alerts were declared by the system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines in Luzon and Visayas.

Fortunately, the entry of new generation capacities eased power demand. The country’s supply base grew 14 percent to 21,423 MW in 2016 from 18,765 MW with majority of new capacity coming from coal plants.

“This increase in capacity is associated with the commercial operation of new power plants in Luzon such as the 2×150 MW SLPGC coal plant. 450 MW San Gabriel natural gas plant; Visayas the 135 MW Palm Concepcion coal power plant unit 1, 132.5 M Helios solar farm; and Mindanao the 2 x 135 MW FDC Misamis coal power plant  and 150 MW SMC Malita coal power plant,” DOE said.

The country’s dependable capacity reached 19,097 MW last year or about 89 percent of the total installed capacity which has been delivered to the grid.

The department also reported that a total of 5,068 MW of committed power projects are expected to come online from 2017 to 2025 but the department wants to entice more investors in the country’s power sector.

“The DOE is continuously encouraging investments in power generation in view of the increasing peak demand which is expected to grow by more than triple in 2040,” it said.

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