Meralco to raise renewable energy share in supply portfolio

MANILA, Philippines — The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the largest electric power distribution company in the Philippines, has committed to raise the portion of renewable energy in its supply portfolio.

Sourcing an increasing portion of its supply portfolio from renewable energy is part of the company’s long-term sustainability strategy.

Through Meralco’s strategic sourcing initiatives, renewable energy is expected to account for 22 percent of the distribution utility’s supply portfolio by 2030, and 18 percent of its retail electricity supplier, MPower, by 2025.

Meralco said this will eventually allow the company to reduce its total carbon emissions by 15 percent vis-à-vis its projected baseline 2030 emissions, in line with its energy transition commitment.

“Our just, orderly and affordable transition to clean energy is at the core of our sustainability journey, and this commitment solidifies our drive to bring to life projects that will help serve the country’s growing energy demand with greener power,” Meralco first vice president and chief sustainability officer Raymond Ravelo said.

Meralco said it has contracted 1,880 megawatts of renewable energy capacity from various suppliers, already breaching the initial target of 1,500 MW, in compliance with and in support of the Department of Energy (DOE)’s renewable portfolio standards (RPS) policy.

The RPS program is a component of the Renewable Energy Act of 2008 designed to encourage greater use of renewable energy in the country.

It mandates electricity suppliers to source a portion of their energy supply from eligible renewable energy resources to contribute to the growth of the country’s renewable energy industry.

To help achieve the government’s goal of increasing the share of renewable energy in the country’s energy mix to 35 percent by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040, the DOE raised last year the RPS requirement from one percent per annum to 2.52 percent starting this year.

“We will continue to elevate and evolve our sustainability initiatives as we implement our long-term sustainability strategy that involves the adoption of next-generation clean technologies and deep decarbonization efforts as we aspire to be coal-free by 2050,” Ravelo said.

With the continuous energization of new customers from both ordinary service and project-covered applications, Meralco as of end-June had a total customer count of 7.716 million.

In terms of power generation, Meralco, through Meralco PowerGen Corp. (MGen), is also pushing for cleaner energy by ramping up its attributable renewable energy capacity to 1,500 MW with investments in more and larger green energy projects, including battery energy storage systems.

MGen is investing at least P18 billion to accelerate the expansion of its renewable energy portfolio.

The investment will cover over two gigawatts of gross renewable energy capacity from solar and wind, which the company will build through 2030 along with its various partners.

One Meralco targets to reduce its direct emissions by 20 percent through 2030 as it drives to be coal-free before 2050.

Meralco established its sustainability agenda in 2019 called Powering the Good Life, which is rooted in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and supported by four pillars, namely, power, planet, people and prosperity.