Sunday, June 30, 2013

Open access ‘good so far’


Business World Online
Posted on June 30, 2013 09:38:28 PM

THE COMMERCIAL implementation of retail competition and open access (RCOA), which began June 26, is off to a good start, based on feedback as the Energy department received from initial customers.

ELECTRICITY METER -- BW File Photo
"It’s good so far. The 239 registered contestable customers went online last Wednesday. We haven’t gotten any complaints from customers," Carlos Jericho L. Petilla, Energy secretary, said in a phone interview on Saturday.

Mr. Petilla added that the department cannot disclose the prices of the customers’ electricity, based on contracts with suppliers.

"But I heard, what they got is lower than what they originally pay to their DUs (distribution utilities). Rest assured that customers got better deals and services than the previous, when they don’t get to choose their DUs," Mr. Petilla said.

Contestable customers are electricity end-users whose average monthly peak consumption is at least one megawatt (MW).

Under the RCOA, contestable customers can choose their own suppliers, who in turn can provide tailored supply packages based on each customer’s consumption and preferences.

In a text message on Saturday, Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) President Melinda L. Ocampo said: "The launching of RCOA was successful. There were some contestable customers who tried to meet the June 26 effectivity [of their contracts] but we need to strictly follow the rules on the applicants’ compliance to complete the requirements."

"Maybe, on the next billing period, we will be able to approve them. PEMC will continue to monitor the implementation [of RCOA]," she added.

PEMC is the central registration body of RCOA. In a statement last week, PEMC said the 239 registered customers chose these DUs: Aboitiz Energy Solutions, Inc. (45 customers); Adventenergy, Inc. (5); DirectPower Services, Inc. (29); Manila Electric Co. (151); Masinloc Power Partners Co. Ltd. (1); San Miguel Electric Corp. (1); and TeaM (Philippines) Energy Corp. (7).

Even though the 239 are less than a third of the 909 customers accredited by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), PEMC has said that it hopes the rest will be able to secure supply offers that suit their needs by the end of the year. 

Mr. Petilla said that the remaining customers should continue toward securing contracts.

"Those who don’t have contracts yet remain with their DUs until such time that they get contracts, but they should continue negotiating with suppliers and secure a contract. If they don’t have contracts by December, then they will source their power through SOLR (supplier of last resort), which will source power requirements from the WESM (Wholesale Electricity Spot Market)," he said.

Mr. Petilla added that the six-month period is ample time for the other contestable customers to see how they might benefit from RCOA.

"So now, they don’t know how to manage their electricity, but we expect them to see the benefits of RCOA and their power to choose as this thing goes along," the Energy secretary said.

"Some of the customers are still learning, and a lot are still adjusting. So, we expect questions from them, and we continue to educate them. In the next few months, we expect to see how the market will behave with the RCOA," he added.

Mr. Petilla also emphasized that since long-term contracts are not allowed under RCOA, the department expects that customers will choose the suppliers that give them the best electricity service.

"They have the benefit of switching to another supplier [on a monthly basis] starting Dec. 26 if they choose to do so. They should maximize that," Mr. Petilla said.

Ms. Ocampo, meanwhile, said that PEMC will be meeting with its technical working group on a weekly basis to assess the implementation of RCOA, so that the group can also immediately address the problems that might arise along the way.

PEMC’s assessment will go hand-in-hand with the Energy department’s, according to another official.

"So far, no big issues yet on the RCOA implementation. We will be continuously assessing the implementation," Mylene C. Capongcol, Electric Power Industry Management Bureau director, said in a separate text message.

"There will be challenges, and ‘birth pains’ will be experienced; that is why the DoE (Department of Energy) and the ERC are closely working together to avert if not minimize the problems that both the contestable and captive market may experience," she added.

"We look forward to having more competition in the generation and supply sectors that will pave the way for adequate and reliable supply of electricity, as well as transparent and competitive electricity rates." 

Only contestable customers will benefit from RCOA in the meantime, but the idea is to eventually bring down the cap for all other customers.

Section 31 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001 provides that two years after the implementation of RCOA, "the threshold level for the contestable market shall be reduced to 750 kW (kilowatts)."

"Subsequently and every year thereafter, the ERC shall evaluate the performance of the market. On the basis of such evaluation, it shall gradually reduce threshold level until it reaches the household demand level…" the EPIRA states.

RCOA had been pushed back at least three times since 2010. -- Claire-Ann Marie C. Feliciano   source

Environment groups call for end to ‘age of coal’

Philippine Daily Inquirer

AN ENVIRONMENTAL activist unfurls a huge banner in Davao City on Friday as he joins environmentalists across the globe in the international protest to end the “age of coal.” A 300-megawatt coal power plant of Aboitiz Power is being constructed in Davao City. KARLOS MANLUPIG/INQUIRER MINDANAO
DAVAO CITY—Huddled under umbrellas, dripping wet and totally soaked by sudden rain on Friday, environmental activists unfurled a streamer calling for an end to the “age of coal,” as they blamed coal-fired power plants for the abnormal weather conditions fast becoming a new norm in Mindanao.
The protesters wore masks emblazoned with words such as “end coal now.”
“If we can ban smoking in Davao City, why do we allow coal?” one streamer read.
Juland Suazo, spokesperson of the environmental group Panalipdan, said they wanted to send the message not only in Davao but in the entire world as well that the age of coal has to end because, though it’s the fault of rich countries, it’s the poor people in poor countries who bear the brunt of the abnormal weather conditions and climate change.
Groups like the Network Opposed to Coal and the Dabawenyo Ayaw sa Coal, who fiercely opposed the Aboitiz Power Corp.-owned 300-megawatt coal-fired power plant Therma South Inc., joined the global action against coal by marching around Freedom Park here amid the sudden rain that flooded the nearby Bajada streets.
“Filipinos deserve to live in a coal-free environment,” Beau Baconguis, program manager for Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said in a statement distributed during the rally.
Baconguis said the country is obviously suffering from the effects of climate change and it was “simply illogical and immoral to pump more carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere” with more coal-fired plants.
“This will only bring more destruction and jeopardize the health and security of the country,” she said.
Baconguis said the aggressive development of coal-fired power plants in the country is “almost criminal,” as it contradicts the spirit of the Renewable Energy Law and other laws in the country that seek to mitigate greenhouse emissions.
“We are experiencing abnormal weather and climate-related disasters because of the use of fossil-based energy like coal,” Suazo said, as he recounted the second anniversary of the worst flooding here that killed 30 people. Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao source

Towns without power after strong winds

Manila Times.net
June 30, 2013 8:10 pm
Balanga City: Sudden strong winds brought by Tropical Storm Gorio on Sunday lashed at Bataan province, toppling power lines and rendering seven out of 11 towns and a city in the province without electric power for three to seven hours.
Affected were the towns of Samal, Pilar, Orion, Limay, Bagac, Morong and the city of Balanga.
Jonathan Manrique, manager of the Orion service center, said the 69-kilovolt lines that serve the Limay to Morong line was affected due to strong winds at 4:30 in the morning.
“Nagkaroon ng clearance ang conductor kaya nagka-problema at nawalan ng kuryente sa mga bayan ng Pilar, Orion, Limay, Bagac at Morong [There was a clearance in the conductor so problems were encountered and electricity was cut in the towns of Pilar, Orion, Limay, Bagac and Morong],” he said.
Manrique said that they have fixed the problem at past 11 a.m. and would advise the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines to restore electricity in the affected areas.
The 69-kilovolt lines of Samal bogged down at 4:15 a.m. and the town encountered a power outage from 4:15 to 7:30 of the same morning. In Balanga City, a blackout was recorded in nine of its barangays for more than three hours.
“Dahil sa lakas ng hangin kaninang madaling-araw kaya nagkiskisan ang mga linya at naapektuhan ang serbisyo ng kuryente pero dalawang grupo ng aming service [crew] ang agad rumisponde [Because of the strong winds earlier in the morning, the lines chafed each other and electricity services were affected; but two groups of our service crew immediately responded],” said Zaldy Mercado, foremean of the Peninsula Electric Cooperative (Penelco).
Before the power outage in Balanga City, fire broke out at the service line in barangay San Jose, burning portions of some electric wires. Residents said that the Bureau of Fire Protection immediately responded using fire extinguishers.
The service crew of Penelco, the main power distributor in Bataan, was busy repairing electric lines in Balanga City and Orion town.
At the Bataan capitol in Balanga City, strong winds toppled a big canvass tent intended for use in today’s turnover ceremony between outgoing Gov. Enrique Garcia and newly elected Gov. Albert Garcia of Bataan.
The elder Garcia won as congressman in the second district, a post to be vacated by son Albert.
Some big and already fruit-bearing mango trees were also uprooted in Orion, Bataan.   source

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Challenges inhibit implementation of RE projects


Business Mirror

Published on Saturday, 29 June 2013 17:11

CHALLENGES to upscale the implementation of renewable-energy (RE) projects must be immediately addressed if the global goal of 100-percent renewable power by 2050 is to be achieved.
Power harnessed from the sun, water, wind, thermal vents and biomass currently supplies a mere 16.7 percent of the world’s power.
In a new report, “Meeting Renewable Energy Targets: Global Lessons From the Road to Implementation,” major challenges inhibiting RE project implementation in seven countries—the Philippines, China, India, Germany, Morocco, South Africa and Spain—are identified.
The report is a collaboration between the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) to highlight key findings and understand which factors are crucial to reach national RE targets, based on information from the seven countries.
WWF Global Climate and Energy Initiative leader Samantha Smith says that while setting targets represents a clear commitment to renewable energy, simply setting these targets is not enough.
“The real job is to create an enabling environment, including financing, assured access for the poor, infrastructure and capacity-building. This is what will ensure these targets are achieved.”
The report shows the following challenges:
  • Balancing policy flexibility and stability
  • Implementing policies that promote cost competitiveness
  • Identifying appropriate funding and investment security frameworks
  • Transparency and accountability of decisions
  • Achieving wide-scale political and social acceptance
  • Mapping institutional and stakeholders discrepancies and diverging interests
  • Overcoming infrastructural lock-in to conventional energy sources
  • Policy reliability with long-term planning
  • Sufficient human capacity building
“Financing is a particularly significant challenge and the WWF’s recently launched Seize Your Power! campaign urges governments and financial institutions worldwide to increase investments in RE,” adds Smith.
WWF Global Energy Policy Director Dr. Stephan Singer says upscaling the implementation of RE is possible “if countries avoid the mistakes and learn from the successes of countries which have pioneered implementation.”
“Today, 138 countries across the globe have set RE targets—most to be met by 2020. But RE targets, important as they are, serve merely as icing on the cake,” he says.
“Local and national participation by stakeholders, sound national technology assessments, schemes to provide affordable and clean energy to the poor, financing the needed cost of capital and infrastructure, grid integration, monitoring success and bottlenecks, as well as a good compliance system, are all crucial parts of a sound implementation plan to make renewables the key energy supply source in the coming decades,” he adds.
Says Athena Ballesteros, World Resources Institute International Financial Flows and Environment project manager, “The report’s case studies show how successful RE implementation needs far more than financing and technology—it needs good governance. Ensuring transparency and public participation in energy planning, effective policy design and investments in human know-how and capacity are crucial to move RE projects forward.”
The report, a collaboration between the WWF and WRI, provides clear evidence that numerous factors are required to reach national RE targets.
“If addressed appropriately and consistently, these barriers can become opportunities for creating fundamental and solid conditions for successful RE implementation,” adds Singer.
“With RE investments expected to spike in coming decades, it makes sense to maximize our natural assets,” says Rafael Senga, WWF International Asia Pacific Energy policy manager. “In the 1970s the Philippines had the foresight to invest in indigenous geothermal power. We must again retrace that path and invest in one of the country’s few competitive advantageous—our vast renewable-energy resources. And we need to do it now!”  source

Challenges inhibit implementation of RE projects


Business Mirror

Published on Saturday, 29 June 2013 17:11

CHALLENGES to upscale the implementation of renewable-energy (RE) projects must be immediately addressed if the global goal of 100-percent renewable power by 2050 is to be achieved.
Power harnessed from the sun, water, wind, thermal vents and biomass currently supplies a mere 16.7 percent of the world’s power.
In a new report, “Meeting Renewable Energy Targets: Global Lessons From the Road to Implementation,” major challenges inhibiting RE project implementation in seven countries—the Philippines, China, India, Germany, Morocco, South Africa and Spain—are identified.
The report is a collaboration between the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) to highlight key findings and understand which factors are crucial to reach national RE targets, based on information from the seven countries.
WWF Global Climate and Energy Initiative leader Samantha Smith says that while setting targets represents a clear commitment to renewable energy, simply setting these targets is not enough.
“The real job is to create an enabling environment, including financing, assured access for the poor, infrastructure and capacity-building. This is what will ensure these targets are achieved.”
The report shows the following challenges:
  • Balancing policy flexibility and stability
  • Implementing policies that promote cost competitiveness
  • Identifying appropriate funding and investment security frameworks
  • Transparency and accountability of decisions
  • Achieving wide-scale political and social acceptance
  • Mapping institutional and stakeholders discrepancies and diverging interests
  • Overcoming infrastructural lock-in to conventional energy sources
  • Policy reliability with long-term planning
  • Sufficient human capacity building
“Financing is a particularly significant challenge and the WWF’s recently launched Seize Your Power! campaign urges governments and financial institutions worldwide to increase investments in RE,” adds Smith.
WWF Global Energy Policy Director Dr. Stephan Singer says upscaling the implementation of RE is possible “if countries avoid the mistakes and learn from the successes of countries which have pioneered implementation.”
“Today, 138 countries across the globe have set RE targets—most to be met by 2020. But RE targets, important as they are, serve merely as icing on the cake,” he says.
“Local and national participation by stakeholders, sound national technology assessments, schemes to provide affordable and clean energy to the poor, financing the needed cost of capital and infrastructure, grid integration, monitoring success and bottlenecks, as well as a good compliance system, are all crucial parts of a sound implementation plan to make renewables the key energy supply source in the coming decades,” he adds.
Says Athena Ballesteros, World Resources Institute International Financial Flows and Environment project manager, “The report’s case studies show how successful RE implementation needs far more than financing and technology—it needs good governance. Ensuring transparency and public participation in energy planning, effective policy design and investments in human know-how and capacity are crucial to move RE projects forward.”
The report, a collaboration between the WWF and WRI, provides clear evidence that numerous factors are required to reach national RE targets.
“If addressed appropriately and consistently, these barriers can become opportunities for creating fundamental and solid conditions for successful RE implementation,” adds Singer.
“With RE investments expected to spike in coming decades, it makes sense to maximize our natural assets,” says Rafael Senga, WWF International Asia Pacific Energy policy manager. “In the 1970s the Philippines had the foresight to invest in indigenous geothermal power. We must again retrace that path and invest in one of the country’s few competitive advantageous—our vast renewable-energy resources. And we need to do it now!”   source

Construction of Philippines largest solar plant set in Sept.

By Bong S. Sarmiento
Saturday, June 29, 2013
KORONADAL CITY -- Construction of the largest solar power plant in the country worth at least P1 billion is scheduled to start in September and expected to go on stream by January 2014, an official said on Friday.
The renewable energy project will be located in a 20-hectare property in Surallah town in South Cotabato, said lawyer Antonio Bendita, the incoming town mayor.
"This will be a big boost to our town through the employment and revenue that the project will generate," he said in a radio interview.
Bendita said the solar power facility will rise along the road in Barangay Tubi-allah, adding they expect it to become an ecotourism attraction of the locality.
The facility will produce power for the South Cotabato I Electric Cooperative Inc. (Socoteco I), he said.
The supply contract has been signed last Wednesday between Socoteco I and NV Vogt Philippines Solar Energy One Inc., Bendita added.
At five megawatts (MW), it would be the biggest photovoltaic (PV) power project in the country once completed, surpassing the one MW solar facility in Cagayan de Oro City.
Socoteco I, which serves this city, the seat of government of Soccsksargen (Region 12), eight other towns in South Cotabato, and Lutayan in Sultan Kudarat, has a daily peak power demand of 32 MW.
Santiago Tudio, Socoteco I general manager, said their contract with the National Power Corp. (Napocor) is ending this August, and the cooperative has been looking for suppliers as the state-owned power company reportedly indicated it would no longer renew its 20-MW allocation to the cooperative.
Napocor operates the Agus and Pulangi hydropower plants, which supply half of Mindanao's power needs.
Tudio said earlier that they are working for the acquisition of diesel-fired modular generator sets that could produce 15 MW to offset the projected supply shortfall with the end of the three-year contract with Napocor in August.
Napocor started reducing its allocation to electric cooperatives in Mindanao last year due to the declining capacity of its hydropower plants in Bukidnon and Lanao del Norte.
Daily rotating brownout lasting up to eight hours hit some parts of the island months ago and the interruptions are expected to be back in August to December due to the scheduled preventive maintenance shutdowns of power plants.
As alternative solution to the Mindanao problem, the Department of Energy has offered a loan scheme that will allow electric cooperatives in Mindanao to acquire their own modular generator sets.
Under the scheme, which will be coursed through National Electrification Administration, Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said electric cooperatives will be given a grace period of two years wherein they will only be required to pay for the loan's interest.
After two years, he said the cooperatives will have an option to pay for the loan principal and interest or completely waive any further payment by returning the generator sets to NEA.  source

ERC issues rules on transition to open access


 (The Philippine Star) 

MANILA, Philippines - The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has issued a resolution governing the transition to the so-called open access and retail competition regime in the power sector.
In its resolution, the ERC said contestable customers (CC) or those with a monthly electricity demand of at least one megawatt have can stay with their current electricity supplier until Dec. 25, 2013 or until they are able to find a retail electricity supplier (RES).
The ERC said there are several CCs that have not found an electricity supplier capable of serving their respective power requirements.
The different CCs have asked the ERC that they be allowed to stay with their respective distribution utilities (DU) currently serving their electricity requirements until Dec. 25, 2013.
At the same time, the ERC said that in case a CC decides to terminate its contract with its distribution utility, it should inform the DU 60 days prior to the effectivity of its new contract with a retail electricity supplier.
“Moreover, once a CC has decided to enter into a contract with a retail electricity supplier, it will no longer be allowed to return to its old DU’s regulated service,” the ERC said in its rules.
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ERC chairperson Zenaida Cruz-Ducut said the ERC issues to resolution with the best interest of the contestable customers in mind.
The CCs’ business viabilities are protected through the easing of the timelines provided in the Transitory Rules by taking cognizance of the inability of the Retail Electricity Supplier (RES) to make fixed offers and serve the power requirements of the CCs,” Ducut said.
Under the first phase of open access regime, CCs or electricity end-users with a monthly average peak demand of at least one megawatt for the preceding 12 months are entitled to choose their electricity supplier as determined by the ERC in accordance with the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) or Republic Act 9136.
The Department of Energy (DOE) and the ERC together with the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC), administrator of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) launched on Monday the commercial operations and integration of the so-called Retail Competition and Open Access (RCOA) into the WESM or the country’s electricity trading floor.
However so far, only 239 contestable customers out of 909 applicants have received approval to participate in the new regime.   source