Dominant Manila Electric Co., or Meralco, will bank on the potential of relatively new technologies to expedite reaching its goal of full decarbonization — a move that the company deems necessary as the country's largest power distributor. 

Meralco first vice president and chief sustainability officer Raymond Ravelo emphasized the need for industry players to lead the just transition of the local energy sector.

In an interview at Business Sense, an online show of the Daily Tribune, Ravelo described the goal of Meralco's sustainability agenda as protecting and preserving "this only home of ours or planet Earth. We are a power company and our trust for sustainability is to provide energy for all always."

"To create a sustainability mindset in our people, we create an inclusive workplace for all our employees. And then finally we promote prosperity. Prosperity, for me, is the most important. This is about creating better lives for all, right?"

Meralco will use clean energy technologies beyond traditional renewable energy knowhow such as solar, wind, and hydro, according to Ravelo. Nuclear power development is also a possibility.

Meralco will continue looking for ways to efficiently shift to renewable energy. "We can deploy hydrogen, to give some example. Another is what we call offshore wind.  And then a third option which we are as early as now already taking a look at but the deployment will maybe be in the 2030s, is nuclear," Ravelo said. 

Meralco has set out its long-term strategy to promote a just and affordable clean energy transition.

The company intends to be coal-free by 2050. But before that, it will first push to cut its direct emissions by more than 20 percent by the end of the decade, or by 2030.

According to Meralco, the targets cover its projected 2030 baseline Scope 1 emissions directly generated from thermal power generation and the use of fuel for vehicles and other equipment. 

RE next energy frontier

Meralco has been heavily investing in the development of renewable energy or RE to serve the country's growing demand for greener power as the economy leapfrogs. 

This includes the distribution utility's program to source an increasing portion of its supply portfolio from RE. Meralco has so far contracted 1,880 megawatts or MW of RE capacity from various suppliers, already exceeding its initial target of 1,500 MW. 

 As such, Meralco said RE is expected to account for 22 percent of the distribution utility's supply portfolio by 2030, and 18 percent of that of Meralco's retail electricity supplier, MPower, by 2025.  

To further strengthen its decarbonization efforts, Meralco, through its power generation arm, Meralco PowerGen Corp. or MGen, is accelerating its RE buildout to develop greener generating capacities to power the country with sustainable energy. 

 Earlier this year, MGen committed to invest at least P18 billion for its RE buildout which will cover capacities from clean technologies such as solar and wind which the company aims to build through 2030. 

"In the coming years, Meralco will accelerate its shift to green energy through the adoption of next-generation clean technologies. Ultimately, we will drive deep decarbonization to advance long-term energy security with earth-friendly power," Ravelo said. 

The government set the target of a 35 percent share of renewable energy in the country's energy mix by 2035 and increased it further to 50 percent by 2040.

However, it is still notable that despite an aggressive stance on clean energy utilization, the Philippines still heavily relies on coal.

Coal, which is cheaper than other forms of power but more detrimental to the environment, is still the highest contributor to the power generation mix at nearly 60 percent. Renewable energy only takes a little over 20 percent of the mix.