RENEWABLE-energy advocacy groups on Tuesday strongly urged the Department of Energy (DOE) to include existing coal power plants in the recently announced moratorium on greenfield coal power projects.
The Power for People Coalition (P4P), Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ) and the Ministry of Ecology in the Diocese of Lucena called on the DOE to use its declared coal moratorium to ban all coal-fired power plants in the country. This can be its contribution to avoiding even worse catastrophes than what the Philippines experienced from a string of typhoons in the last five weeks.
In an online press conference, the groups called for accountability on the part of DOE and the national government for the role of their policies in worsening the climate emergency.
“Coal fuels disasters. It’s plain and simple. So long as we burn coal, its greenhouse gas emissions will continue to heat the Earth and produce typhoons like Rolly and Ulysses, only much stronger and more frequently. It’s already too late to reverse the current trend of typhoons, but it’s not too late to stop the trend from becoming worse,” said Gerry Arances, P4P Convenor.
P4P plans to hold another National Day of Action Against Coal (NDA) to demand that DOE use the coal moratorium to permanently prohibit the issuance of any new Certificates of Endorsements for coal projects in the pipeline, eventually revoke existing ones, and begin the decommissioning process for operating plants.
DOE declaration
Recently, DOE Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said his office would no longer endorse new applications for greenfield coal power plants, citing the need to shift to a “more flexible power supply mix” that would help build a more sustainable power system in the country.
“Because of these coal plants in our midst, natural resources that sustain life have been degraded, people are getting sick, and now, they bring disasters. DOE, please stop coal. We are one with NDA in making this declaration this Friday,” said Fr. Warren Puno, community advocate and Director of the Ministry of Ecology in the Diocese of Lucena.
The groups see an increase of 140 percent in installed capacity of coal plants from the existing 9.88gigawatt if all coal projects in the pipeline would push through.
“No amount of economic growth can compensate for the damage that the climate emergency can bring. And what’s sad is that even if the promised economic growth happens, it does nothing to benefit the poor who are the ones who bear the brunt of the consequences of the economic and policy decisions of those who look only at numbers and graphs on paper, and not the flooded towns and destroyed lives in real life,” said Arances.
Ian Rivera, National Coordinator of PMCJ, commented that the DOE’s coal moratorium is the agency’s way of “covering its tracks of failures, bad planning, and its role in causing the reprehensible electricity rate of the country.”
“DOE finally succumbs to the truth of market signals, the global trends of waning financial viability of coal, the strong drive of renewables, and the stranding of coal plants in Mindanao with an excess in baseload in the island which DOE already needs to transport to Visayas and Luzon,” he said.
Total ban problematic—Cusi
Sought for comment, Cusi said he understands the concerns raised by the groups. Unfortunately, he said, banning all coal power projects, including existing ones, would only create more problems for the country.
“We understand them, especially those who are pushing for their respective technologies. Many want to put a stop to coal but we all know that we can’t do that,” said Cusi.
Coal, being the cheapest of the fuel options, remains abundant in the power sector. Based on DOE figures, coal’s share in the capacity mix stood at 40.5 percent, followed by oil at 16.8 percent, natural gas at 13.4 percent and renewable energy at 29.3 percent.
“We are doing what is good for our country that’s why we declared a moratorium on greenfield coal power plants. But we can’t stop existing coal power projects in the country. Where will we get power (to replace supply coming from coal plants), from hell?” Cusi said.
Earlier, the Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED) said the moratorium should result in the shelving of nine coal projects with a total capacity of 5,600 megawatts, representing 40 percent of coal-fired power generation capacity in the pipeline.
However, CEED urged the DOE to expand the moratorium to cover the remaining 8,100 MW of new coal-fired capacity that are up for development.
Also, DOE should impose a mandatory retirement of old coal plants, it added.
DOE Assistant Secretary Redentor Delola said the ban on new coal power plants would include indicative coal power projects that have made little progress. “There should be substantial accomplishments already. There are some indicative plants that have no progress at all since these were filed with the DOE,” he said.
Indicative power projects, on the other hand, have already applied for DOE endorsement for the conduct of the System Impact Study but have yet to secure financial closing.
Based on DOE’s August 2020 data, there are 15 indicative coal-power projects, which could generate a total of 9,703 megawatts (MW) that are listed under the agency’s Private Sector-Initiative Power Projects.
Ten of these are located in Luzon, possibly injecting 8,275MW into the power-hungry Luzon grid; two coal projects (500MW) in Visayas; and three coal power plants (928MW) in Mindanao.
The DOE report said that out of the 15 indicative coal power projects, 10 belong to San Miguel Corp., which earlier declared it would ramp up the country’s clean energy capacity. However, the same data indicated that SMC’s proposed coal power projects have already secured the necessary permits.
In determining which of the indicative projects should be covered by the moratorium, Delola said the agency will release a set of guidelines soon. “We are still gathering necessary updates. We will evaluate based on the updates. The activities are not chronological so the level of substantial accomplishments vary. Everything will be included in the advisory,” he added.
Image credits: AC Dimatatac, iCSC