Geothermal Energy In The Philippines

The Philippines is the third largest producer of geothermal electricity after the United States of America and Mexico. Geothermal exploration was started in 1962, and the first large commercial power plants came on-line in 1979 in two fields. By 1984, four geothermal fields had a combined installed capacity of 890 MWe and in these plants supplied about 20% of the country's electric needs. Geothermal energy development was stimulated in the mid-1970s by the oil crisis and rapidly growing power demand, government support, available foreign funding, and a combination of private and government investment and technical expertise. However, no new geothermal capacity has been added since 1984, despite the growing demand for energy and the continuing uncertainty in the supply of crude oil. The Philippines' geothermal capacity is expected to expand by 270–1100 MWe by the end of 1999. Factors that will affect the rate growth in this decade include suitable legislation, environmental requirements, financing, degree of private involvement, politics, inter-island electric grid connections, and viability of the remaining prospects.

For the last five (5) years since 2010, the significant development in the Philippines geothermal industry focused on the policy reforms and the privatization of all the NPC generating assets. Since the 1990s several bills have been proposed in Congress for the amendment of PD 1442 and, subsequently, as the government’s thrust to accelerate the promotion and development of the clean Fronda, et al. 2 and renewable sources of energy, a new policy was introduced in the power sector. The Philippines passed the Republic Act No. 9513 (RE Law) which was signed on 16 December 2008 and took effect on 30 January 2009 to provide additional fiscal and nonfiscal incentives to further develop all renewable energy sources of energy, including geothermal. The privatization includes the sale of 112.5 MWe at Tongonan I, 192.5 MWe at Palinpinon I and II geothermal power complex to EDC in September 2009 as well as the 150 MWe Bacman Geothermal Power Plant Complex to EDC in 2010. Green Core Geothermal Inc. (GCGI), a subsidiary of EDC, operates the Tongonan I, Palinpinon I and II. The rehabilitation works for these power plants have been completed and are now in normal operation. Bacman I (110 MWe) and Bacman II Cawayan (20 MWe) plants are undergoing major rehabilitation works and expected to be on full operation by 2014. To address the growing demand and energy security in the country, the government aims to increase the geothermal capacity by about 75% over the next 16 years (Figure 1). Out of the 1,465 MWe target, only 50 MWe additional capacity have been committed to be online. One (1) of the committed project, the 20 MWe Maibarara geothermal power project was commissioned on February 2014 which is being operating by Maibarara Geothermal Inc., and the other one is the 30 MWe Nasulo expansion project of EDC and is expected to be on commercial operations by 2014. About 255 MWe expansion projects are also in the pipeline which involves the development of additional geothermal resources located within the existing geothermal service contract. The remaining 1,160 MWe potential capacities are still undergoing exploration studies to determine if the areas are feasible for development and utilization. The installed geothermal power capacity in the Philippines.