FOR Metro Cebu to sustain its growth, a balance between renewable and fossil-based energy sources in its energy mix is needed, an Aboitiz Power official said.
Speaking to local stakeholders at the Mega Cebu Energy Forum yesterday, AboitizPower chief operations officer (COO) Luis Miguel Aboitiz talked about the opportunities in retail competition and open access (RCOA) as a choice for establishments to choose their power generators.
Under the RCOA, customers with monthly average peak demand of at least one megawatt (MW), classified as contestable customers (CCs) by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), can choose their own supplier of their energy requirement (See separate story).
Aboitiz said consumers can choose from some 50 power generators in the county.
Renewables
The official highlighted that consumers can choose energy sources based on their preferred “cost, reliability, and quality.”
For AboitizPower alone, the COO said 38 percent of the power generator’s energy mix comes from solar, hydro, and geothermal sources. To date, AboitizPower and its partners produce 3,350 MW of total net sellable capacity.
By the end of the year, AboitizPower looks forward to launching its first foray into biomass with the 8.8 MW Aseagas facility in Lian, Batangas.
Meanwhile, the Visayan Electric Company (Veco) represented by utility economics head Dennis Verallo shared that its energy mix is largely from renewables at 48 percent, with 40 percent from coal and five percent from oil-fired power plants.
The distribution company sees an eight percent growth in energy demand this year, double the growth it experienced in the past four years, on the back of growing economic activities in its franchise area, the May elections, and the earlier dry spell.
In addition, Verallo said the company is anticipating electricity sales growth to accelerate by four to six percent in the next four years.
At present, Veco registered a peak demand of 524 MW and this is expected to reach 600 MW by 2019.
In terms of customer class growth, the distribution utility has seen highest growth in residential use by 13 percent, 9.9 percent in commercial and 8.8 percent in industrial.