P1 T needed for power infra until 2025

Nearly P1 trillion is needed in distribution infrastructure projects until 2025 to meet the growing power requirements of the country, according to power distributors.

Based on the Department of Energy’s Distribution Development Plan (DDP), power distributors have proposed a lineup of distribution projects until 2025 to ensure reliability and security of electricity supply to the member-consumers.

These include 5,577 circuit-kilometers

(ckt-km) for the expansion and rehabilitation of sub-transmission lines, 34,233 ckt-km for the expansion and rehabilitation of distribution lines; and 16,375 MVA additional substation capacity.

“All these proposed capital expenditure projects will require P968.41 billion for implementation, including the financing requirements for electrification projects, network and non-network projects,” the report read.

The DDP, started in 2015, expects distribution utilities’ (DUs) customer count to have an annual average growth of 3.87 percent.

This means that from 17.7 million in 2015 and 18.5 million in 2016, customer connection is projected to increase to 26 million in 2025, bulk of which is located in the National Capital Region (NCR) at 15.85 million, followed by Mindanao at 5.39 million and Visayas at 4.74 million.

With the rise in customer connection, energy sales is forecasted to rise by 5.51 percent per year from 56,393 gigawatt-hours (gwh) to 95,626 GWh by 2025.

On the other hand, DU energy sales is projected to grow at an annual rate of 4.32 percent. From a total of 69,340 gwh in 2015 and 73,103 gwh in 2016, it will continue to grow to 105,874 gwh by 2025.

For the peak demand, DUs registered a peak of 11,764 megawatts (MW) in 2015, which is projected to grow annually at 4.3 percent from 12,474 MW in 2015 to 17,914 MW in 2025.