The country’s total installed on-grid power capacity grew by a measly 0.12 percent in 2023 from 2022, with coal still dominating the power mix, data from the Department of Energy showed.
Total installed on-grid capacity was recorded at 28,291 megawatts (MW) in 2023 against 2022’s 28,258 MW.
Coal recorded an installed capacity at 12,406 MW, down by almost 0.18 percent from 12,428 MW. Coal’s share fell last year to 43.9 percent from 44 percent in 2022.
Installed on-grid capacity from hydroelectric power plants followed with 3,799 MW, a 1.4 percent increase from the previous year’s 3,745 MW. Its overall share also slightly increased to 13.4 percent from 13.3 percent.
Closely trailing at third and fourth spots are oil -based power plants and natural gas-fired power plants, respectively.
Oil-based power plants as of end-2023 had a total capacity of 3,737 MW, a 2.5 percent decline from 3,834 MW with an overall share in the power mix of 13.2 percent.
Installed capacity from natural gas-fired power plants remained at 3,732 MW, a 13.2 percent share to the power mix.
The contribution of on-grid geothermal power plants was unchanged at 1,952 MW with an overall share of 6.9 percent.
Solar power plants recorded the most additional on-grid capacity to 1,653 MW from 1,530 MW, equivalent to a growth of 8.04 percent. Overall share went up to 5.8 percent from 5.4 percent.
Capacity contribution of biomass power plants fell to 585 MW from 611 MW with its share slightly dropping to 2.1 percent from 2.2 percent.
Total installed capacity of wind power plants was stagnant at 427 MW and a 1.5 percent share to the power mix.
The DOE did not include energy storage systems in the power mix but the on-grid capacity of these systems was at 436 MW for both battery and hybrid technologies, up 179.5 percent from 2022’s 156 MW.
In terms of plants not connected to the national grid, total installed off-grid power capacity as of end-2023 stood at 684.666 MW against 2022’s 673.677 MW, a growth of 1.6 percent.
For off-grid power plants, oil-based facilities led with 612.362 MW, up by 1.8 percent from 601.373 MW. Their share to the mix also increased to 89.4 percent from 89.3 percent.
Other off-grid hydro power plants’ capacities were unchanged: hydroelectric, 30.605 MW equivalent to a share of 4.5 percent; wind power, 16.560 MW for a share of 2.5 percent; coal, 15 MW and a 2.2 percent share and solar, 10.139 MW with a share of 1.5 percent.
There were no off-grid capacities from power plants utilizing biomass, geothermal and natural gas for fuel but the total battery energy storage system capacity in off-grid areas remained at 1.040 MW.
