A party-list group on Monday said the Philippines is not yet ready to immediately shift to renewable energy (RE), saying banning of coal-fired power plants may put the country’s energy security at risk.
Party-list group Alyansa ng mga Grupong Haligi ng Agham at Teknolohiya para sa Mamamayan (AGHAM) President Angelo B. Palmones issued the statement as he welcomed the Department of Energy’s (DOE) recent pronouncement to clear a confusion brought about by an earlier announcement imposing a moratorium on the endorsement of greenfield coal power plants.
“The country still needs coal power plants to address the demand,” he said.
AGHAM Party-list, Palmones added, believes the country cannot immediately shift RE, which is being pushed by anti-coal groups.
“The anti-coal groups should understand that the country could not go full blast on RE at once because it is neither cheap nor reliable,” Palmones added.
According to Palmones, DOE’s recent clarification that there would be no policy to bar existing plants from continuing their operations, adding such is a huge relief for major power players in the country.
He added that banning coal-fired power plants, both existing ones and those that have already been given prior endorsements and Certified Energy Project of National Significance from DOE, will put the country’s energy security at risk.
With the sheer volume of the country’s rising power demand, the party-list group said the Philippines needs reliable sources of power and provide such with a stable baseload generating capacity.
Earlier, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said that coal-fired power plants will continue to be an important component of the Philippines’s energy mix. The government cannot afford to mandate a retirement of such facilities although it is prepared to disallow additional projects.
The moratorium on greenfield coal-fired power plants the DOE issued last month only applies to those projects that have not yet been proposed, or whose proponents have not filed their applications for DOE endorsement, or for permits.