Japanese joint venture firm TeaM Energy Corporation is exploring prospects for potential wind energy development for its compliance to renewable portfolio standard (RPS), a policy to be crystallized under the Renewable Energy Law.

“We are looking at some wind prospects,” TeaM Energy president Federico E. Puno said, albeit he qualified that plans are still very preliminary as even the RPS policy is still being crafted by the National Renewable Energy Board.

Asked on the possibility that the RE portfolio of an affiliate firm may be used to offset the RPS requirement, Puno noted that it is also one of those they are trying to monitor with respect to the RE portfolio standard’s crafting.

“We’re also looking at that but we don’t know yet what will be provided for in the RPS,” he stressed.

It must be noted that TeaM Energy is affiliated with Marubeni Corporation, operator of the 345-megawatt San Roque hydroelectric power plant in Pangasinan. The Law classifies hydro as renewable energy resource. TeaM Energy is a joint venture between Tokyo Electric and Marubeni.

The company previously indicated geothermal as another RE resource it will be exploring to comply with the RE mandate. Even that though has yet to be firmed up in its project blueprint.

The draft policy set by the NREB propounded that all power suppliers must comply with the RPS once implemented. The manner of implementation would be either to require the power industry players to build their own RE facilities or for them to buy credits to offset their carbon footprints.

The target of the RPS, aside from doubling the country’s RP capacity, would be to lower the carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) of power generators relying on fossil fuels, primarily those on coal and oil.

TeaM Energy is among the companies that previously crafted expansion plans in the Luzon grid, but due to timeframe adjustment in the close of demand-supply gap, it deferred proposed projects.

The appointment of independent power producer administrators (IPPAs) for both its Sual and Pagbilao coal-fired power facilities also emerged as additional consideration relative to the company’s future capacity expansion.