Philippines Government Aims to Transform its Power System through the REZ Transmission Planning Process

In September, the Philippines Department of Energy (PDOE) issued a Department Circular on the "Establishment and Development of Competitive Renewable Energy Zones in the Country," which formalizes the process of identifying renewable energy zones (REZs) that connect the country's power transmission development to areas with excellent renewable energy resources. NREL's Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) Transmission Planning Process served as a valuable guide for the planned approach to integrate transmission expansion and renewable energy generation planning. This guide was developed as part of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-NREL Partnership, which helps countries with policy, planning, and deployment support for advanced energy technologies.

The USAID-NREL Partnership helped the PDOE reach this point through a multi-year collaboration, which recently produced a solar and wind integration study, demonstrating that renewable energy targets of up to 50% are achievable in the 2030 planned power system in the Philippines. This multi-year collaboration also produced an updated Philippines Wind Atlas and an RE Data Explorer geospatial tool that supports renewable energy exploration in the Philippines. The government now aims to implement cost-effective power sector enhancements throughout the entire country.