Lopez-led clean energy firm First Gen Corporation shared that its low-carbon power plants and gas-fired facilities are some of the ways to achieve energy security, energy equity and affordability, and environmental sustainability.

During the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (EJAP) Forum with Aboitiz Power Corporation, First Gen presented its plans to develop more gas plants like the 1,200 megawatts (MW) Santa Maria gas plant.

This would boost the firm’s current capacity which is at 2,107 MW.

Though the Philippines is aiming for a more renewable approach to energy generation, Carlo Vega, First Gen vice president, explained that aiming for the trilemma of energy security, equity, and sustainability has a few setbacks.

For instance, energy security is achieved through the increase of power plants. At the same time, the affordability aspect is weighed through government measures such as the secondary price cap in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) to protect consumers from hefty prices.

Meanwhile, the thrust for sustainability is achieved through the government’s latest Philippine Energy Plan (PEP) by accelerating the shift to renewables.

Despite the PEP, the Philippines has been dependent on coal-fired power plants for more than a decade, increasing its share of the carbon-intensive mix to 60 percent from seven percent since the 1990s. Given the large share of coal in the country’s energy mix, this would impose a problem when it comes to the green energy shift.

“It’s actually not a transition [to a green economy] if we continue to emit the same amount of carbon [dioxide],” Vega said.

Part of the PEP stated that the share of natural gas in the country’s gross generation output should improve from 16 percent to 25 percent by 2050, while coal should go down to 14 by the same year.

Aside from the energy share, PEP stated that power plants running on natural gas are “the cleanest among fossil fuels.”

“We feel that this [or natural gas] is the solution because of two things: One, it is in fact, without a doubt the least- carbon-emitting fossil fuel source of power,” he said.

“Whether it’s 50 percent, 55 percent or 60 percent lower, it [emission of natural gas] is much lower than coal,” Vega explained,” Vega added.

According to the First Gen chief, the natural gas used as fuel can provide baseload, mid-merit, and peaking power generation requirements.

“That’s why we feel that, if we were to look at a transition fuel to bring us to where we want RE to be, then we should put more eggs in this basket because there are a lot of eggs already in the other baskets,” he added.

First Gen’s power plant portfolio also has carbon-free renewable energy sources like geothermal, hydro wind, and solar. These plants have a total capacity of 1,651 MW.

The firm aims towards a 9,000 MW renewable capacity in the next six years.