Philippines teams up with Japan to provide electricity for Mindoro households

The parties aim to provide a small-scale power system to provide stable power supply to off-grid areas.

The Philippines’ Department of Energy (DOE) and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) are looking to review Mindoro’s Power Development Master Plan as a continuation of the power sector technical cooperation agreement (TCA) signed in June 2018, an announcement revealed.

Mindoro, the seventh largest island in the Philippines with a population of about two million people, suffers from unreliable electricity services, with many communities remaining without access to power.

According to DOE secretary Alfonso G. Cusi, providing stable and reliable power in off-grid areas remains a considerable challenge to the country’s goal of total electrification. “With the help of METI, we will be able to undertake a comprehensive study of the Mindoro grid, and assess the feasibility of introducing a micro-grid system as a source of stable power. If everything goes well, Mindoro would serve as an electrification model for the rest of the off-grid islands in the Philippines.”

Under the proposal, the DOE has requested METI together with Japanese firm, KPMG AZSA LLC, to provide technical assistance for the formulation of a comprehensive and integrated power system development and operational pIan for Mindoro and help build capacity towards the total electrification of all households in the island, especially the poor villages and communities in the peripheries of the remote uplands and coastal areas through the introduction of the micro-grid system.

“A micro-grid is a small-scale power system able to provide stable power supply to off-grid areas by combining distributed power sources such as diesel generators, solar power, wind power, and storage batteries,” the agency explained.