Napocor wants bigger RE portfolio

MANILA  -State-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor) is keen on growing its renewable energy technologies in Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG) areas from the current 2 percent to at least 25 percent of its portfolio in the next two to three years, its top official said.

According to Napocor president Fernando Roxas, the company will be adding “many kinds of technologies” in its operations, particularly solar plants, as these are the “easiest” to implement.

“Then we will work our way to other technologies. We can’t rely solely on solar plants because we will need to find other [sources of power] at nighttime,” he told reporters in a recent interview.

SPUG refers to off-grid areas that rely on the mostly diesel-fired facilities operated and developed by Napocor.

Roxas explained that this was part of Napocor’s more expansive goal of operating SPUG plants on 100-percent renewable energy, which he said would take around four years to achieve.

“We will start [increasing our renewable technologies] next year. It will take maybe two years to reach 25 percent and another four years to reach close to 100 percent,” he said.

Napocor currently operates 281 SPUG plants in 189 municipalities across the country.

It previously unveiled plans to introduce more hybrid systems to off-grid areas in the Philippines to lower power costs.

For one, Napocor had said its hybrid Limasawa Power Plant Project, which was completed in 2020, reduced the cost of electricity in Southern Leyte by an average of 97 centavos per kilowatt-hour.

While nearly all its SPUG plants operate on diesel, Napocor vowed in March this year to scale down its acquisition of diesel generating sets to fast-track its renewable energy program in remote areas.

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