Ilocos Norte Governor Imee R. Marcos is eyeing the establishment of the community-owned power plants in the province to ensure sustainable and stable power supply.
Ilocos Norte is already home to three windfarms, including the 150-megawatt Burgos Wind Project which is the largest windfarm project in Southeast Asia.
Also located at the premises of the Burgos Wind Farm is a 7MW solar farm, the first in the world, according to the Department of Energy (DOE).
“We are trying to reduce the intermittency of the renewable sources. Sometimes there’s no wind, so the solar kicks in,” Governor Marcos explained.
“We’re trying combinations of solar and wind as well as solar and hydro,” she added.
Aside from environmental conservation, her long-term goal through such projects is to have community-owned power plants.
“We have one small 1MW plant that’s now powering up about five barangays,” she said.
“We are hopeful that in the future, they will be owned by the farmers because after all, the land belongs to them.”
She also pointed out that the province had been, in the past, subject to extensive brownouts because it is at the end of the transmission grid.
“Given our wealth of wind and solar resources, we don’t see the need to embark upon huge coal-fired plants,” Marcos further expalined. (Freddie G. Lazaro)
