DOE to identify RE zones in the country

The Department of Energy (DOE) will be identifying areas in the country that will be specifically developed into renewable energy (RE) zones.

The department is currently gathering pace on its public consultation on the demarcation of sites that it calls the competitive renewable energy zones (CREZ) – and such requires parallel study on proposed “Greening the Grid: Solar and Wind Integration.”

By mapping out specific areas where the RE facilities will be sited, the DOE opined that it will be easier for it to firm up the Philippine Energy Plan (PEP) as well as for the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to address transmission bottlenecks associated with these kinds of installations.

The department, in a draft Circular, has stipulated that this policy is anchored upon development of RE zones, that could enable “upgrade and expansion of transmission facilities through policy initiatives and activities that shall enable the optimal use” of the country’s RE resources.

With the recent adoption of the Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) rules for the RE sector, over 15,000 megawatts of RE facilities are anticipated to be installed in the country until year 2030 – hence, strategically siting them will greatly help especially in managing the intermittency linked with these technologies.

For the targeted NGCP facilities, the DOE emphasized that it will draw up a planning framework that shall be directed by the country’s transmission development “to areas where potential RE resources are located.”

The department added that several competitive RE zones will be “identified and established in the country.”

As fleshed out in the propounded DOE policy, the RE zones shall be established in geographic areas with “high quality but low-cost RE potential, in addition to high levels of private sector development interest.”

The assignment of a certain area as RE zone shall also be analyzed based on “economic, operational, environmental as well as other costs and benefits associated with the required transmission enhancement scenarios.”

The DOE noted that it will be needing industry inputs, primarily the necessary data and information that will then back up government analysis, before even identifying such domain as RE zone.

“The focus of the CREZ analysis shall include the Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao interconnections,” the energy department has reiterated.