In the bid of President Marcos for secure and reliable power supply in the country as he declared in his State of the Nation Address (SONA), leading player Aboitiz Power Corporation forthrightly stated that it will opt for a mix of conventional generating assets, renewable energy (RE) and the integration of innovative technologies in the continuing diversification of the country’s energy mix.

“Aboitiz Power is aligned with the Philippine government in pushing for sustainable solutions that meet the nation’s demand for a more secure electricity system,” the company has noted in a media statement.

It emphasized that in scouring for concrete solutions that will address the ‘energy insecure’ state of the country, the company will “advocate for a balanced power generation mix composed of traditional and RE capacities, as well as a balanced development of the generation, transmission, and distribution sectors.”

Aboitiz Power also acknowledged the improvement in the country’s power transmission infrastructure which had been monumentally applauded by the President in his SONA.

“Like the President, the company welcomes the significant progress in transmission infrastructure in the past year, as this will unlock capacity that is meant to meet the requirements of demand centers, hence propelling the economy forward,” the power firm stressed.

Upgrades and further expansion of the country’s power transmission backbone had been a major wish list in the power industry – especially for investors in the RE sector because of the distinct need of their facilities for grid integration.

President Marcos repeatedly asserted in his SONA that one of the major problems that his administration will be focusing on next in the fixing front are the relentless complaints of high electricity rates and the unreliable power supply in the country – and one of the steps he proposed to be taken is to rewrite some provisions of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act.

With the recurring strain of red and yellow alerts in this year’s summer months, investors in the power sector have sounded off the need for immediate capacity additions – primarily those that will plug the gap in baseload capacity needs of Luzon and Visayas grids; which at this time, cannot fully lean on the generation of variable RE technologies.

Sponsor-firms have been setting their development sights on additional capacity installations on gas-fed technologies; and others have been batting for development of plants that are not covered in the coal moratorium issued in 2020.

By addressing power supply reliability and affordability through the entire supply chain, Aboitiz Power opined that “the country can sustain its economic gains and attain its aspired upper middle income target.”

And in the continuing transformative phase of the electric power industry, Aboitiz Power is similarly advancing the deployment of innovative technologies across its supply chain – including adoption of digital twins and integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to help improve the operations of power facilities, including the distribution part of its portfolio.

“Aboitiz Power also supports the President’s call for greater innovation in the country. He has mentioned the use of solar PVs to power irrigation and even schools, reducing some dependence on oil,” the company expounded.

The firm qualified that it already started “innovating its fleet of power generation assets to enable more efficient operations,” and such included the development of digital twins for its Therma South and Therma Visayas power plants; and it is also employing innovative technology solution on its binary facility at the existing site of its Tiwi geothermal plant in Albay.