Shell Energy secures additional supply from Leyte solar plant

MANILA, Philippines — Shell Energy Philippines Inc. (SEPH), a retail electricity arm of oil giant Shell, is improving its power supply with another 15-year contract with Greenlight Renewables Holdings Inc. The fresh power supply agreement, which involves an additional 120 megawatts peak (MWp) of capacity, allows SEPH to secure 240 MWp of solar capacity. The company said this strengthens its renewable energy portfolio available to its about 100 commercial and industrial customers. Greenlight Renewables’ San Isidro Solar Power Project in Leyte will supply the capacity. “Our continued partnership with Greenlight reflects a shared commitment to making renewable energy available to customers while supporting the country’s growing energy requirements,” Bernd Krukenberg, president of Shell Energy Philippines, said in a statement on Tuesday. In June last year, SEPH also tapped PetroSolar Corp. (PSC), which is part of the Yuchengco Group, for its electricity requirements. SEPH’s deals with its customers are possible, thanks to the government’s green energy option program (GEOP). Since its launch in December 2021, GEOP has been allowing customers consuming an average peak demand of 100 kilowatts (kW) to source their power from renewable energy. But the government earlier moved to trim the minimum eligibility threshold to 50 kW. The program also enables multiple end-users within a contiguous area to aggregate their electricity demand and negotiate for their clean power supply. Providing more choices to consumers, power regulators reduced the threshold in June for the retail competition and open access (RCOA) program and the retail aggregation program (RAP). From 500 kW, RCOA now lets participants who consume at least 100 kW a month buy cheaper electricity from retailers other than the existing suppliers in their area. Meanwhile, RAP allows households and smaller consumers in the same area to consolidate their demand to meet the threshold.