In a bid to weed out long-dormant renewable energy projects, the Department of Energy (DoE) is set to take a stronger approach on tracking service contracts and envigorate its capacity in fulfilling its commitment to the government.
According to energy assistant secretary Mylene Capongcol, the DoE will now be more active in monitoring projects that have been sleeping for a long time, stressing that it’s about time that they are awakened from their lethargy.
“The agency is keeping a close watch on the projects to ensure developers fulfill their delivery commitments,” Capongcol disclosed.
Based on DOE data, over 1,400 renewable energy (RE) contracts with an aggregate potential capacity of 154 megawatts have been awarded as of last February the current year.
Broken down, these contracts comprised 569 solar, 420 hydropower, 307 wind, 74 biomass, 32 geothermal and nine ocean projects.
“Our (goal) is to at least remove the barriers to RE development so that we can make better use of available space and increase our renewables capacity,” Capongcol asserted.
“We’re not saying that RE will solve everything as far as the power supply (is concerned) but at least we can sustain the local or indigenous supply,” she added.
Under the Philippine Energy Plan, the local energy aims to expand the share of renewables in the energy mix to 35 percent by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040 from the current 22 percent.
In addition, the energy department is also set to explore the adoption of a new mechanism that would make terminated contracts available to other developers.
“But of course, it has to be the least costly, most efficient and most beneficial to the country,” Capongcol cited.
Late last year in October, the DoE identified at least 105 RE projects at risk of termination due to failure to meet project time lines. Of the total, 88 projects—53 solar, 17 hydropower, 10 wind, five geothermal and three biomass—were either stalled in their pre-development phases or not advancing at all.
In ending, Capongcol clarified that developers with RE projects at risk of cancellation may still appeal and submit a motion for reconsideration so that their contracts may be revived to give them an opportunity to fulfillment their commitments.