Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said Tuesday, Sept. 15, that around 135 megawatts (MW) of baseload capacity is planned for Panay by 2028 to boost the Visayas grid, which has suffered from frequent red and yellow alerts since May.
During an online briefing, Garin said the government also aims to add 270MW by 2029 and another 150MW in 2030.
“Except for those islands that don’t allow baseload capacity, renewable po ilalagay natin (we’ll put up renewable energy),” she said.
Garin said these targets were presented to officials of the Regional Development Council (RDC) of Western Visayas on Monday to assure them of the government’s commitment to ensuring a reliable and resilient regional power supply.
As a temporary solution, she said operators of major coal-fired power plants have been directed to immediately restore generating units currently on forced outage.
Garin said Unit 2 of Therma Visayas Inc. (TVI) is scheduled to return to operations Wednesday and Unit 1 on Friday, followed by Unit 3 of the Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC) by Oct. 3.
She said around 253 MW of battery storage facilities will be deployed across the Visayas, particularly in Cebu, Panay, Leyte and Negros.
Garin said capacity for these battery storage systems will be sourced from renewable energy generating units and utilized during the peak hours to boost supply.
“And we continue to work with NGCP (National Grid Corporation of the Philippines) to immediately integrate this capacity into the grid,” she added.
The NGCP issues red and yellow alerts when power supply falls short of the grid’s contingency and regulating requirements.*PNA
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