The Department of Energy expects around 6,841 megawatts of new power supply and 330 MW of battery energy storage system to come online across the three grids this year.
DOE data showed that bulk of the new capacity are located in Luzon at 5,754 MW, followed by Visayas at 855 MW and Mindanao at 232 MW.
It said that in the Luzon grid, around 3,060 MW would come from solar power plants, followed by natural gas at 1,320 MW, wind at 759 MW, coal at 500 MW, geothermal at 68 MW, hydro at 35 MW, oil plants at 11 MW and biomass at 1 MW.
The bulk of the additional Visayas and Mindanao capacity will come from solar at 742 MW and 128 MW, respectively.
Data also showed that Excellent Energy Resources Inc.’s 1,320-MW natural gas plant in Batangas is the biggest power plant expected to come online in February. EERI is owned by San Miguel Corp.
Other notable projects are the 150-MW MPGC coal plant (January), 160-MW Balaoi and Caunayan wind projects (March), 86-MW Subic solar plant (May), 87.59-MW Ilocos Norte solar plant and 218.75-MW Talim wind power plant (June).
The DOE expects more plants to come online in the second half, including the 350-MW Masinloc coal plant (August), 200-MW Labrador solar plant and 171.85-MW Olongapo solar plant (October), 128-MW Tanay wind plant, 62.40MW Alabat wind plant and 99.98-MW Talugtug solar plant (November) and 12 solar plants with total capacity of 1,800 MW, 90-MW Rizal wind project and 70-MW Caparispisan 2 wind project (December).
“I think it’s important to stress that we are in a much better situation this year than we were compared to last year, precisely because we have a number of projects that have come online, not only in terms of new generation capacity but particularly in terms of the transmission lines that are vital to bring the supply to the market,” Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said.
“But we must remember that we are only as strong as our weakest link, and our weak links are everywhere. You know that we are an archipelagic country, that’s one, and therefore every major island, for example in the Visayas, has a different energy situation or condition from the rest of the country,” he said.
