January-December 2015

Summary

• Peak demand growth rate in the Visayas Grid was recorded the highest at 8.1% compared to 2.4% and 3.3% growth for Luzon and Mindanao from 2014-2015.
• Coal maintained its largest share to the total installed capacity at 32%, dependable and available capacity at 34% and power generation mix at 45%.
• Due to Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) race, wind and solar grew in terms of total installed capacity at 50.9% (144 MW increase) and 616% (142 MW increase) respectively from 2014 to 2015.
• Electricity sales and consumption increased remarkably by 6.7% from 77,261 GWh in 2014 to 82,413 GWh in 2015.
• A total of 633 circuit-km of overhead transmission lines were completed and a total of 1,025 MVA additional capacities and 600 MVAR of reactive power support were installed from January to December 2015 Majority of these completed transmission projects are in the Luzon Grid.

SIGNIFICANT INCIDENTS

• 19 February 2015 – Visayas Partial Blackout
• 15 March to 13 April 2015 – 2015 Malampaya Turnaround and the Projected Power Shortage
• El Niño Phenomenon starting March 2015
• 5 April 2015 – Mindanao Blackout
• June 2015 – Fire incident that affected the operations of KSPC
• October 2015 – Typhoon Lando
• Bombed and Toppled Transmission Towers in Mindanao in January, October, November and December 2015

A. INSTALLED, DEPENDABLE AND AVAILABLE CAPACITY

The Philippines’ total installed generating capacity continued to grow by 4.6% from 17,944 MW in 2014 to 18,765 MW in 2015 equivalent to 821 MW increase. Coal-fired power plants constitute the largest share in the installed and dependable capacity in 2015 at 32% and 34% respectively. Among renewable energy, hydro sources’ share remained the highest at 19% majority of which comes from the Mindanao Grid. With the FIT incentives and continued support of the DOE and energy agencies and stakeholders, Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) such as wind and solar grew remarkably by 50.9% (144 MW increase) and 616.0% (142 MW increase) respectively from 2014 to 2015 as shown in Figure 1.

The percent share on a per Grid basis remained unchanged over the years. In 2015, almost 75% of the total capacities was in Luzon, while Visayas and Mindanao, with at par shares, comprised the remaining 25%. The commercial operation of power plants from different technologies provided the needed additional capacities for the Luzon Grid in 2015.

On the average, the actual available capacity during peak hours in Luzon, Visayas in Mindanao was 70% of the total installed capacity in the Philippines in 2015. Among other plant technologies, natural gas in Luzon provided the highest percentage of available capacity over installed capacity at 95%, followed by coal at 85% and geothermal at 70%. Whereas, wind and solar, due to variability and intermittency, provided the lowest available capacity in 2015 at only 22% and 33% of the total installed capacity.

For Visayas and Mindanao, coal-fired power plants delivered the highest available capacity at 91% and 89% respectively. The actual available capacity over installed capacity provided by wind and solar was the highest in Visayas at 89% and 72%. However, due to El Niño, the available capacity of hydro in Mindanao was limited to only 58% of the total hydro capacity.

Table 1. 2015 vs. 2014 Installed, Dependable and Available Capacity, Philippines (in MW)

Click link to view/download PDF file of the 2015 Philippine Power Situation