FIRST
Will thermal fill Taiwan’s gaping hole?
RETAIL COMPETITION
Nuclear gradually phasing out
PHILIPPINES
W
ASIA
hen the Taiwanese government decided to yield to public protest to stop nuclear power generation, it gave itself until 2025 to find a way to boost the combined share of wind and solar power to 20% and effectively offset the loss of nuclear power. But thermal energy just might end up filling the void following Taiwan’s planned nuclear phase-out. Tim Ferry, associate editor at American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan, reckons the loss of four out of Taiwan’s six nuclear reactors — which were stopped and not restarted due to heavy opposition — would leave a 9% hole in the country’s total power generation. Failures are on the trail Wind and solar power should gain strong momentum across the island in the wake of strong anti-nuclear power sentiment that pushed the government to halt nuclear power generation by 2025, but some analysts are less optimistic about the prospect of non-hydro renewables than they are about thermal energy. “The government has outlined ambitious expansion targets for the solar sector,” says Georgina Hayden,
Janssen Dela Cruz, GBPC
Source: BMI Research
head of research at BMI Research. “However, the country’s track record of frequent changes to renewable energy policy and previous failures to meet sector expansion targets informs our relatively conservative renewables sector forecasts at present.” Thermal sources will grow in importance over the coming decade. Led by coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG), total thermal power output is expected by Hayden to grow by over 60% between 2015 and 2026. Thermal energy’s contribution to total electricity generation should also shoot up to over 95%. “The project pipelines for both coal and gas power plants have strengthened notably and totals a combined 11GW,” says Hayden. “The gradual commissioning of these facilities will result in Taiwan’s increased reliance on thermal imports, and coal and LNG demand will grow accordingly.”
Retail competition and open access (RCOA) scheme is the newest buzzword in the Philippine energy market. RCOA, if implemented, will provide consumers the freedom to choose their power providers. Janssen dela Cruz, vice president at Global Business Power Corp, talked about the implications of the new policy. What do you think are the biggest trends in the Philippine power sector? Right now, the retail competition open access is the largest trend that we’re seeing. It’s a shift away from just getting your power from the distribution utilities. I see a lot more of the industry players embracing this because it’s lowering their electricity costs and I see a lot lower electricity rates being thrown around in the bids, which is Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) , and in its purest form. It’s beginning to lower the price of electricity for the consumers. It’s beginning to work and more competition is adding a lot more choices to the industry players. Tim Ferry
plant WATCH
Pertamina inks $1.8b gas-fired plant deal
Aboitiz backs out of geothermal project
Mytrah Energy’s 2000MW projects
PT Jawa Satu Power, a special purpose company sponsored by Marubeni Corporation, PT Pertamina (Persero) and Sojitz Corporation, entered into a long-term PPA with the Indonesian utility, PT PLN (Persero) for the sale of electricity for 25 years in respect of a project to construct, own and operate a 1,760MW gas-fired power plant and floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) for electricity sales to PLN. The gas-fired power project costs about US$1.8b..
Amidst a string of deals signed almost consecutively, Aboitiz Power announced that it is making an exit from a power plant deal in Indonesia so it can focus more on its other on-going and pipeline projects. Its partner, PT Medco Power Indonesia, will be proceeding with the exploration and development of a potential 2x55MW geothermal power plant in Ijen, East Java Province. The agreement was signed in September 2015. These were disclosed via the Philippine Stock Exchange
Mytrah Energy has signed pacts for 2,000MW of reneable projects worth Rs13,000 crore in Andhra Pradesh. 1,000MW will be for wind and the other 1,000MW will be for solar power projects. The projects will be across Andhra Pradesh’s eight districts. Five of these will be assessed for wind power potential for the first time. Mytrah Energy is slated to become the state’s largest renewable IPP once all projects are commissioned. Mytrah Energy has hit 1GW of wind capacity in October 2016.
8 ASIAN POWER
What are the latest projects your company is working on? Right now, we have a coal power plant. It’s a 600 MW, 2x300 supercritical. It’s being developed in La Union. Additionally, the pump storage is something we’ve been looking at for a long time. But pump storage is not for the energy market. We’re trying to look at different storage systems for ancillary because what we’re seeing in the Visayas is a lot more solar and wind which is very intermittent, variable, renewable, so there’s a lot of generation already in the Visayas but very little in terms of reactive ancillary so that’s the sector we’re trying to look at right now. As for our capacity, we’re over 800GW right now, with the 600GW of course we’ll exceed it. We’re looking at another 100GW to 150GW for the renewables. We’re partnered with Roxas Holdings although this is something that was disclosed about a year ago. And now, thankfully, we’ve been able to submit our documentation for the 36-40 MW project for biomass. But we’re more looking into the biomass sector for renewables more than anything else because it’s an underserved sector. Solar and wind are already full but biomass is very location- and fuel-specific, so we’d like to put our expertise as power generators to maximise the sector.