Consunji-led DMCI Power Corporation will be spending P3.5 billion for expansion of its power generation portfolio that will primarily cater to the off-grid domains of Masbate and Palawan.

According to the company, a substantial amount of P2.7 billion will bankroll a blueprinted thermal power facility to be sited in Narra, Palawan; while P800 million will be spent for hybrid diesel power plant in Cataingan, Masbate – and their off-takers or capacity buyers are electric cooperatives in Masbate, Palawan and Oriental Mindoro.

As designed, the Palawan power plant will have a capacity of 15 megawatts and it is targeted to be on commercial stream by the second quarter of 2023.

The Masbate electric generating facility, on the other, will have aggregate capacity of 12MW – and 4.0MW of that will be coming from solar energy resource. Target commercial operation date for this particular project is first quarter of 2022.

DMCI Power Chief Operating Officer Antonino E. Gatdula Jr. qualified that “these investments are in response to the government’s mandate to accelerate the exploration, development and utilization of renewable energy and indigenous fuel resources, thus, decreasing our dependence on imported fuel.”

Hybridization of energy technology deployments had been the growing strategy in providing energy access to consumers in off-grid areas, and this is a flourishing trend propagated not only by the government but also by private investors.

For the thermal power facility to be installed in Palawan, DMCI Power underscored that this will “lower the cost of electricity” for consumers in the area; that in turn, will also bring down the subsidy being paid by all consumers for off-grid sites.

Upon completion of both power plant ventures, the Consunji-owned company indicated that its total capacity in missionary areas will already be increased to 163.72 megawatts from 136.42MW.

DMCI Power is the energy investment arm of the Consunji group that caters to jurisdictions that are not physically connected to the main transmission grid.

For these off-grid areas to be provided with electricity service, all Filipino ratepayers are mandated to shoulder subsidy cost; and that is passed on via the universal charge for missionary

electrification (UCME) line item in their electric bills.

But with the amalgamation of conventional technologies and renewable energy sources, it is widely anticipated that the subsidy rate burden of the Filipino consumers will ease up moving forward.