An executive of Aboitiz Power Corp. called on the government for a careful and phased approach to energy transition that accounts for the realities of the Philippines’ socio-economic needs.
AboitizPower chief operating officer for thermal operated assets Ronaldo Ramos related the experiences of other ASEAN countries to the Philippines’ own energy transition journey at the recently held Coaltrans Asia 2024 in Bali, Indonesia.
The Philippine Energy Plan (PEP) targets a 50:50 mix of renewable and non-renewable energy sources by 2040. Data from the PEP show that the Philippines needs around $550.2 billion in investments to reach the 50:50 energy mix target.
“We all want a future that is powered by abundant renewable energy. The cost of solar panels and battery storage technologies going down are encouraging,” Ramos said. “But we must be mindful of the present realities of the Philippines.”
The Philippines is an archipelago that has more than 7,000 islands, with its three major island grids only just being recently interconnected.
“We need reliable and reasonably-priced baseload power to address the inherent intermittency of renewable energy and the geographical challenges of injecting these intermittent capacities to our present grid,” Ramos said.
Meanwhile, Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said during the same event that if there are fair and equitable expectations between developed and developing countries, then economic growth could happen even without the cost of increasing emissions.
“Countries who have stronger capacity should do more carbon reduction and [do it] faster. The developing world should continue to grow but should also slow down the emission trajectory,” said Pandjaitan.
“Developed nations have been the biggest emitters and need to provide real support for the energy transition in the Global South,” he said, noting how energy transitions are tougher for developing countries.
Pandjaitan said that while Indonesia and its neighboring countries have energy transition and decarbonization plans, baseload sources like coal still have a key role in their respective grids.
Coal, as a baseload energy source, is able to fill in the gaps of more intermittent renewable energy and hence stabilizes the power grid. Pandjaitan said even some developed countries that have decarbonized were revisiting their energy mix.
“Even in Germany, coal-fired power plants still play key roles in balancing the electricity output of variable renewable energy such as wind and solar,” Padjaitan said.
