Visayan Electric Co., the country’s second biggest power distributor, called over the weekend for a balanced mix of generation sources.
Veco chief operating officer Anton Perdices said over 50 percent of the company’s power supply came from renewable energy but it must maintain a balanced mix of generation sources to provide reliable and competitively priced power to customers,
Perdices said renewable energy sources lessened the country’s dependence on imported fossil fuels and helped mitigate the effects of climate change.
“In the long term, RE is cheaper than fossil-based technologies… but the initial investment into RE is high at present,” he said.
He noted that renewable energy had its disadvantages like locations in the case of geothermal and hydro.
Perdices said solar and wind power farms, meanwhile, could not provide base-load power due to reliability issues.
“A balanced mix of renewable and thermal energy sources can address the different levels and patterns of power demand in the most efficient and cost-effective way,” he said.
Veco’s peak demand reached 524 megawatts in 2016, with 50 percent supplied by geothermal sources of energy in the Visayas.
Veco, a joint venture of Aboitiz Power and Vivant Corp., distributes electricity to Metro Cebu towns and cities.
The Aboitiz Power Group has a net sellable capacity of 3,954 MW, with 32 percent or 1,263 MW coming from renewable energy.
The company expects its renewable energy capacity to grow further with the completion of the 69-MW run-of-river Manolo Fortich hydropower project in Bukidnon, the 8-MW Maris Canal hydro in Isabela, and the 8.8-MW biomass facilty in Lian, Batangas through subsidiary Aseagas.
Aboitiz Power in April celebrated the successful restoration of the 6-MW Binary 1 plant at the MakBan Geothermal Plant.
Aboitiz Power is the holding company for the Aboitiz Group’s investments in power generation, distribution and retail electricity services.