BASELOAD NEEDED: DOE: Panay needs more plants as power demand surges

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Sharon Garin acknowledged that Panay Island needs additional baseload power plants to meet its growing electricity demand, which could soon outpace the island’s current supply.

Garin told Daily Guardian that electricity demand growth in Iloilo alone averages about 14%—more than double the national average of 6% to 7%.

“Yes, we need more power plants. But I’m emphasizing baseload because solar cannot address the baseload, which is steady. Solar can be gone when there’s rain, so who will provide power?” she said in an interview on Thursday, December 11.

Garin was in Iloilo City for the Renewable Energy Congress and Exhibit.

“At a certain point, our reserves will be thinner and thinner, and we only have a few power plants in Iloilo,” she added.

Panay Island currently has four baseload power plants, primarily coal-fired facilities. These include three units from Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC)—Units 1 and 2 at about 83 megawatts (MW) each, and Unit 3 at 150 MW—and one unit from Palm Concepcion Power Corporation (PCPC) at 135 MW.

“If one breaks down […] there can be a domino effect and power plants start to shut down. That would be a major problem — it affects the whole island, not just Iloilo,” Garin said.

The DOE secretary cited the January 2024 incident when PEDC Unit 1 tripped due to an internal issue, reducing in-island generation to about 310 MW against an estimated demand of 450 MW. This forced Panay to rely on the limited capacity of the Negros–Panay submarine cable.

A system disturbance eventually caused PEDC Unit 2 and PCPC to trip automatically, resulting in a total blackout as reserves were depleted and the submarine cable failed to compensate.

This “domino effect” stemmed from Panay’s tail-end grid position, limited reserves, and transmission constraints, affecting all provinces in the region.

“Hopefully we can have that fixed […] But we’ll try, we’ll try as much as possible and try to get them to commit to finishing before 2028 for the baseload power plant,” she added.

Garin said she is in discussions with the president on available options to ensure a stable power supply for the island, such as building more interconnections beyond the Negros–Panay link.

“There has to be a support, a reserve where we can get power. I would say it should be Mindoro, if Mindoro is connected to Luzon. There are things that we still have to do, and that will be very expensive,” she said.

In its long-term Transmission Development Plan, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) is proposing a Mindoro–Panay 230-kilovolt Interconnection Project—comprising submarine and overhead lines—to link the islands directly.

NGCP is also developing a PHP 90.6 billion, 500-kV Batangas–Mindoro interconnection, using both submarine and overhead lines to integrate Mindoro with Luzon and support renewable energy flows between Mindoro and Panay.