Maintaining Energy Balance Eyed As Solution To Power Crisis

Sustainable energy has grown in importance over the years, with the government aiming to increase renewable energy sources from the current 22% to 50% by 2040. This has led to the phase-out of some coal-fired power plants, as more renewable or hybrid power plants are being built.

For the time being, however, coal power and fossil fuel remain critical as the country addresses a more urgent issue: the threat of a nationwide power crisis. “We need to make sure that coal power plants and fossil fuel power plants will continue to run and support our baseload,” AboitizPower chief engineering and project officer Don Paulino said.

Reliable Power Source

Baseload power is the amount of power supply necessary to provide continuous, reliable, efficient, and low-cost energy that can meet daily demand. Power plants that generate baseload power should be able to operate on a daily basis, save for the rare instances of repairs and scheduled maintenance.

Paulino notes that geothermal and biomass are the two renewable energy sources that can generate baseload supply. However, both energy sources are currently limited with geothermal being relatively expensive and biomass having fuel sustainability issues.

“How that base load will look will really be dependent on available technology but also the affordability. Because for us to be energy secure, it needs to be affordable,” he said.

Avoiding A Major Power Crisis

Paulino also stressed the importance of reliable baseload power in order to avoid another crippling power crisis, the likes of which the country has not seen in decades. But while coal and fossil fuels remain essential now, renewable energy will eventually play a bigger role in stabilizing the country’s power supply.

“We need to make sure that we continue to grow the army and actually explore the technologies that will support it, including batteries. Now, that brings us to the balanced approach,” Paulino said.

A number of new hybrid power plants across the country use batteries to store energy, which can then be used as backup. Many of these pair fossil fuels with renewable energy such as solar power and hydropower.

As this model of power generation and storage becomes more advanced and common around the country, power supply shortages may soon become a thing of the past.

Source: ‘Power crisis looms without balanced energy mix’