Senator hits ‘short sighted’ energy poli

Manila Times.net
Published : Monday, April 23, 2012 00:00 Written by : RITCHIE A. HORARIO REPORTER
THE chairman of the Senate committee on science and technology on Sunday scored the government’s sluggish implementation of the Renewable Energy Act as he revealed that some $5 billion in potential investments was lost due to this delay. Worse, Sen. Edgardo Angara claimed that the snail-paced power sector development brought about by the inefficient implementation of the law has exacerbated the country’s energy problems such as the energy crisis in Mindanao. 
 “While we should weigh matters of immense public interest carefully, we also should not allow reflection to turn into inaction. Caution should not evolve into foot-dragging that translates into an unresponsive, short-sighted energy policy,” Angara said. 
 “Ours has remained a laggard economy because we have not dealt with our energy problems decisively,” he pointed out. 
The Renewable Energy Act of 2008 or Republic Act 9513 was sponsored by Angara and 13 other senators. Many like the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) described it as one of the most comprehensive and forward-looking renewable energy laws in the world. 
 “We had already arrived on a solution long before the recent spate of rotating brownouts in Mindanao happened,” Angara said, stressing that the problem could have been prevented if the law was efficiently carried out. 
 The veteran lawmaker noted that while the Department of Energy (DOE) has already approved 268 renewable energy service contracts since 2009, important policy mechanisms provided in the law have yet to be implemented on account of ongoing deliberations. Some of these mechanisms include the Renewable Portfolio Standards, guidelines on net metering and Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), and the FIT (feed-in-tariff) system. 
 The country has the potential to generate almost 261,000 megawatts (MW) of clean energy from the combined capacity of geothermal, wind, ocean and hydropower resources. Around 40 percent of the country’s primary energy mix is already renewable, with 26 percent of the actual power generated—approximately 17,800 Gigawatt-hours—is sourced from renewable energy. 
 “We can do better considering that we are the second largest producer of geothermal energy in the world, next only to the United States. We are also the top wind power producer in Southeast Asia, and we receive double the solar flux European countries get in a year,” Angara further stressed. 
 Unfortunately, according to the senator, “we are not maximizing this potential or the regulatory framework we had endeavored to put in place.” Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture (DA) is eyeing the country’s irrigation systems as potential sources of additional power to help ease the power crisis in the south. 
 Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, citing a report from National Irrigation Administration (NIA) chief Antonio Nangel, said they learned that irrigation systems can supply 15 MW of electricity daily. 
 “People in the provinces will greatly benefit from this because electricity sourced from irrigation canals is cheaper than those supplied by private power generators”, Alcala explained. For his part, Nangel said that he got the idea of using irrigation systems to supply electricity when he visited Japan recently. It works by placing a turbine on one part of the irrigation canal to turn it into a ‘mini-hydro power plant.’ 
 Calculations by NIA officials revealed that 15 MW of electricity can supply at least 30,000 houses daily. 
 “Besides being a cheap source of electricity, government could earn because it will be paid by Japanese investors,” Nangel added. It was learned that the DA and the Energy department are now on the final stages of planning for the project. If it goes as scheduled, irrigation canals can supply electricity by May of 2013.
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