Coal-fired power plants remain dominant electricity source

MANILA, Philippines – Coal-fired power plants remain the dominant source of electricity in the country, latest data from the Department of Energy (DOE) showed.

In its report, the DOE noted that out of the country’s total installed capacity of 15,610 megawatts (MW) in 2009, coal-run power facilities accounted for a 27.4-percent market share.

Hydroelectric power plants followed with a 21.1-percent contribution.

Oil-fired power plants made up 20.4 percent of the market as their output went down to 3,193 MW from 3,353 MW in 2008.

The reduction in the use of bunker fuel-fired power facilities was due to the expiration of National Power Corp. (Napocor) contracts for the 15-MW Panit-an modular genset in Capiz and the 116-MW Subic diesel plant in Olongapo, Zambales.

Other fuels, such as natural gas, geothermal and new renewable energy (RE) sources contributed 18.1 percent , 12.5 percent and 0.41 percent, respectively.

The DOE noted that the share of renewable energy in the country’s installed capacity is slowly increasing.

Capacity from new RE projects increased due to the commissioning of the one-MW Methane Land Fill Gas in Luzon, the 21-MW First Farmers biomass cogeneration and the 8.3-MW San Carlos Bioenergy in Visayas.

The DOE report also showed that generation from fossil fuels – oil, coal and natural gas- went up 3.9 percent to 41,744 gigawatthours (gwh) in 2009 from 40,193 gwh in 2008.

A gigawattthour is equivalent to 1,000 megawatthours (mwh) which refers to electricity generated with a megawatt of power for one hour.

Generation from RE sources, however, went down 2.1 percent due to the decreased production from hydro and geothermal energy by 0.6 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively. Energy production from wind, meanwhile, recorded an increase of five percent, while solar output declined four percent.

Natural gas-fired facilities remain the leading producers of electricity in the Luzon grid, accounting for 44.2 percent of total generation in 2009, an increase of 1.6 percentage points compared to 2008 level.

Generation from coal-fired power plants also increased 4.4 percent to 14,091 gwh compared to 2008 as generation from geothermal power plants dropped.

The share of geothermal power generation in Luzon declined 5.7 percent, brought about by the shutdown of BacMan plant (150 MW) since May 2009; Tiwi geothermal plant Unit 1 (59 MW) stoppage in January 2009 due to low steam feed supply and some forced outages in the last quarter of 2009; Tiwi geothermal plant Unit 2 (59 MW) outages from September to December 2009 due to cooling tower repairs; and Makban geothermal plant Unit 4 (63.2 MW) annual overhauling from June to August 2009. –Donnabelle L. Gatdula (The Philippine Star)