Senator Sherwin Gatchalian reiterated his call for distribution facilities to contract more renewable energy (RE) as such a move would benefit consumers amid prevailing global energy risks.
Gatchalian’s call echoes a decision made by the Department of Energy (DOE) to increase the percentage of the utilization of RE for on-grid areas from one percent to 2.52 percent, effective in 2023.
“This is a significant increase in utilization and should prompt distribution utilities to consider contracting more RE to deter fuel pass-through amid wild fluctuations in fuel prices,” Gatchalian said.
The senator stressed that the fuel cost pass-through mechanism allows recovery of fuel cost for power generation through electricity tariffs. He also said the development of RE resources is central to the DOE’s sustainable energy agenda.
In 2021, he noted RE accounted for 22.40 percent of the country’s energy mix, with coal-based power plants accounting for 58.48 percent while oil-based and natural gas power plants contributed 1.52 percent and 17.60 percent respectively.
“The time is ripe for us to accelerate the development of renewable energy in the country. Record prices of fossil fuel, as well as continuing concerns on the impact of climate change, leave us with no other viable option but to vigorously pursue the development of green energy,” Gatchalian stressed.
Currently, there are a total of 998 RE contracts, generating around P270- billion of investments that were approved by the DOE. Such contracts have an aggregate installed capacity of 5,460 megawatts and a potential capacity of 61,613.81 megawatts (MW).
The increase is also a mechanism designed to provide a guaranteed market for renewable energy.
“Patuloy ang pag-angat ng renewable energy dahil na rin sa paggamit ng mga bagong teknolohiya (There is a continuous increase in the use of RE due to new technology,” he said.
“Ang pagtutulak ng DOE na taasan pa ang utilization percentage para sa renewable energy ay dapat makahikayat sa ating mga distribution utilities sa pagkontrata ng ganitong enerhiya para na rin sa energy security ng bansa (DOE’s move to increase the utilization of RE should encourage our distribution utilities to contract this kind of energy and to also achieve energy security for the whole country),” the lawmaker said.