PNOC, Napocor team up for hybrid renewables
State firms Philippine National Oil Co. and the National Power Corp. have teamed up for joint efforts to expand electrification in remote areas using a hybrid renewable energy system.
For this purpose, PNOC and Napocor signed up to work on testing solar and wind hybrid systems that use vertical axis wind turbines.
The technology is set to be deployed in select areas under Napocor’s Small Power utilities group or Spug, particularly those “with favorable wind conditions.”
In a joint statement on Friday, PNOC said the move would provide a “significant” boost in delivering sustainable energy solutions for isolated and off-grid areas across the country, while cutting dependence on diesel fuel.
Napocor president Fernando Martin Roxas also said that this would pave the way for a potential reduction in generation costs that would benefit those residing in Spug areas.
Under the deal, Napocor would propose possible sites for the technical demonstration, overlook the project design, and lead the integration of the test units into its existing network.
Napocor is also tasked with the dispatch of power generated through the hybrid system.
Meanwhile, PNOC would identify the sites, overlook the system performance, as well as finance the deployment of the test units.
“(W)e will be deploying the first few units to Masbate, and hopefully scale up soon after we get more data about the yield of this new technology in terms of the hybrid solar-and-wind units that we will be deploying here,” PNOC president Oliver Butalid.
“We want to introduce energy projects, especially new technologies, in marginal areas,” Butalid added.
Both parties did not disclose the whole list of areas the Napocor was looking at, but the agency currently operates 272 Spug power plants across 35 provinces.
