Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi on Thursday reiterated his assurance of adequate electricity supply to meet the demand and prevent brownouts as he also bared continuing initiatives to develop new generation capacities not only to address our future energy needs but also enable consumers to enjoy lower electricity bills.
A statement from the DOE said that Cusi reported to President Rodrigo RoaDutert during the latter’s “Talk to the People” on Thursday, the major accomplishments of DOE under the present administration that included the adequate supply of electricity, additional power capacity to meet future energy demand and a possible downtrend in the prices of electricity through compliance of the industry players in the competitive selection process policy.
Cusi noted that from 21,424 megawatts in 2016 the country’s system capacity has is up by 26,287 megawatts last year. He said it also helped that system demand in 2020 dropped by about 4 percent due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We are expecting an additional capacity of 7,712 megawatts from 2021 to 2027. Overall, we expect an added capacity of around 30,000 megawatts from 2021 to 2032,” Cusi said.
The energy chief said the 2-hour brownouts experienced by some areas in the countryfrom May 31 to June 2 this year, was the worst incident so far, under his leadership although he said they implemented measures to prevent it from happening again.
Cusi added that the improved energy security was achieved through certain policies the DOE has implemented, including the directive for the system operator, the National Grid Corporation, to secure firm contracts for reserves or ancillary services to stabilize the grid and prevent red or yellow alerts.
The DOE has directed industry players to comply with the Grid Operation and Maintenance Policy to avoid simultaneous maintenance of power plants and ensure we have enough supply of electricity particularly during the summer months.
The agency alsoensures that transmission lines are available and reliable for uninterrupted distribution of electricity within the entire system as it does not only look after providing adequate supply of energy likewise, it wants to have a cleaner power for the people to use.
GREEN AUCTION
The DOEalready begun its Green Energy Auction Program in cooperation with the Energy Regulatory Commission aimed to increase the percentage of renewable energy into the energy mix.
Through this program, an additional 2,000 megawatts is expected to augment the energy mix.*
