Marcos govt keeps ban on new Philippine coal plants

The Philippines' new government of president Ferdinand Marcos will keep a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants in the country to avoid sending mixed signals to investors.

New Department of Energy (DoE) secretary Raphael Lotilla said the Marcos administration will continue to implement the ban signed into effect by previous energy secretary Alfonso Cusi in 2020, who then cited the need to shift to a more flexible generation mix. Marcos took office at the end of June, replacing Rodrigo Duterte.

Changing the policy less than two years after the directive was signed would send mixed signals to investors regarding the business climate and investment-related regulatory agendas in the power sector, the DoE said.

The moratorium is also expected to help accelerate investment in the renewable energy sector. Manila is aiming for renewable energy to account for 35pc of the country's overall generation mix by 2030 and 50pc by 2040 under the latest renewable energy roadmap published by the DoE. Renewable energy accounted for 22.4pc of total generated power of 106TWh last year, DoE data show.

Coal-fired power generation will still play a key role in the country's energy security despite the push for a higher share of renewable energy, the DoE said.

Output from coal-fired power plants accounted for 58.47pc of the total power generation last year despite making up only 40.4pc of the country's total installed power capacity. It would not be feasible to abruptly end coal use, the DoE said. Instead, there should be a managed and orderly transition to other energy sources to slowly wean the country off coal.

By Antonio delos Reyes