OFF-GRID power supply generator DMCI Power Corp. said the government should consider excluding off-grid areas in the moratorium on the construction of new coal-fired power plants.
Coal remains the cheapest fuel today that could replace diesel, which is still mostly used in off-grid areas of the country, Isidro Consunji, DMCI Power chairman and chief executive officer, said Monday night in a corporate event in Makati City.
“The moratorium should not include SPUG (Small Power Utilities Group) since what you are replacing there is diesel which is the most expensive,” Consunji said.
DMCI Power said its 15 megawatts (MW) circulating fluidized bed coal plant in Masbate could sell energy at P9 per kilowatt hour (kWh), which is less than half of the cost of electricity from diesel-fired power plants which could reach P23 per kWh. The National Power Corp. supervises 281 SPUG power plants nationwide that are located in islands and communities that are not connected to the main transmission grid. These are mostly powered by diesel-fired generators.
Consunji said DMCI Power’s second coal plant project in Palawan has secured approvals and permits prior to the Department of Energy’s imposition of moratorium for coal power plant projects in October 2020.
If no change in policies is made, it could be the last coal-fired power plant to be built in off-grid areas of the country, the company noted.
DMCI Power has been developing a 15 MW coal-fired power plant in Narra, Palawan. Consunji said SPUG areas pay high cost for their electricity or are provided with large subsidies.
