Natural gas-fired power plants and infrastructure play a key role in the country’s transition to renewable energy (RE) s as the technology will help “keep the lights on during the energy transition,” a top official of First Gen Corp. said.

Federico Lopez, First Gen chairman and chief executive officer, said in a forum hosted by the Net Zero Carbon Alliance earlier this month key elements of the energy transition involve reducing the carbon intensity of electricity while simultaneously scaling up energy efficiency efforts.

“All these will have immense implications for the central role of the electricity grid. The most important point is that by 2050, we will need five times the electricity we use today; and we will need 10 to 12 times the clean energy in use today,” Lopez said.

First Gen said while it aims to grow its low-carbon energy portfolio to 13,000 megawatts (MW) by 2030 — of which 9,000 MW will be from RE — grid reliability and stability must be assured and aligned with the government’s Philippine Energy Plan (PEP).

The PEP calls for an increase in the share of RE to more than 50 percent of power generation capacity by 2050. However, the plan also estimates peak power demand will rise from 16,596 MW in 2022 to 68,483 MW by 2050 or by an annual average growth rate of 5.2 percent.

The plan said RE power plants such as those running on geothermal, hydro, wind and solar energy do not emit carbon dioxide.

It acknowledges that solar and wind power are “prone to ramp down drastically.”

This is why the PEP also calls for the development of natural gas-fired power plants and the overall development of the sector.

“This is very important in the (energy) transition because natural gas has the ability to do two things: it can generate a kilowatt-hour with half the emissions of a coal plant. Secondly, as more and more (REs) come into the grid, (which are) intermittent, you will need to have power plants that can ‘load follow,’ that can ramp up and down very quickly. Natural gas can do that; coal cannot,” Lopez said.

First Gen through its subsidiary, operates a liquefied natural gas import terminal with a floating storage and regasification vessel.

First Gen, as a power generation company, has a combined capacity of 3,668.2 MW with a portfolio utilizing natural gas, geothermal, hydroelectric, wind and solar power technologies. 

The company aims to grow its total capacity to 13,000 MW in the next six years and spend as much as $20 billion until 2030.