The Department of Energy (DOE) is maintaining the moratorium on the development of new coal power plants to reduce the country’s dependence on traditional fuel, a top official said Tuesday.
Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara said the DOE had implemented a moratorium on the development of greenfield coal-fired power plants since Oct. 27, 2020 to support policies intended to improving energy sustainability, reliability and flexibility by increasing the renewable energy (RE) share in the energy mix.
The coal moratorium was also intended to promote new and emerging technologies, increasing system flexibility and adhering to higher environmental standards, she said.
Guevara said that since the moratorium’s implementation, the development of new coal power projects has been halted while remaining coal power project developments are allowed if falling under certain categories such as those already committed (ongoing construction and with financial closing); expansion projects and indicative projects (no financial closing yet) with land site provision and endorsements via resolutions from local government units.
“Currently, the DOE maintains its stand on implementing the coal moratorium to continue the push for reduction of coal dependence in the coming years,” she said during the ADB Asia Clean Energy Forum 2024.
Meanwhile, Guevara said 52,826 megawatts of capacity should be added on top of existing and committed power plants in the country to meet the future electricity demand and aspirational renewable energy (RE) targets of 35-percent RE power generation mix by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040.
She said this would include solar project with 27,000 MW, wind with 16,600 MW, hydro with 6,000 MW, geothermal with 2,500 MW and biomass with 360 MW.
“With the ongoing updating of the Philippine Energy Plan [PEP 2023- 2050], these numbers are most likely to increase further,” she said.
Guevara said 1,304 projects were awarded with RE contracts as of February 2024.
“Out of these contracts’ capacities, 5,803.8 MW are already from existing plants, while 134,631.87 MW potential capacity can still be tapped from projects under pre-development and development stages,” she said.
She said the country needs P20 trillion to P31 trillion ($357 to $570 billion) in energy investment to achieve its target.