MONDAY, 21 FEBRUARY 2011 20:51 SEN. EDGARDO J. ANGARA
The White House recently released its 2011 Strategy for American Innovation, which highlighted the importance of stimulating innovations in the US energy system, particularly in clean energy. Its key proposals include building three more energy innovation hubs (the US currently has three), which would develop batteries and energy storage, smart grid technologies and systems, and critical advanced materials. These hubs gather cross-disciplinary research teams and encourage partnerships across universities, national laboratories and private organizations.
The European Union’s European Technology Platforms (ETP) has also drafted its “Vision and Strategy for Europe’s Electricity Networks of the Future.” The plan, drafted by industry stakeholders, focuses on using smart grids to modernize Europe’s electricity network, support open access and open up the electricity market, especially to renewable energy.
The Congressional Commission on Science, Technology and Engineering (Comste), of which I am chairman, is also developing ways to make our energy sector more efficient, and secure long-term power supply for the country. One of the solutions that we are developing is the establishment of a smart grid in the Philippines.
A smart grid operates like an energy Internet, where end-users can monitor their energy consumption and choose where to source it from. This technology could help facilitate net metering and maximize the potential of an open- access regime, two key measures for encouraging the growth of our renewable-energy industries and deregulating the power sector.
Through net metering, the excess electricity generated by customers who own renewable-energy technologies would flow back to the grid and be sold to providers at a fixed price. This is one of the incentives under the Renewable Energy Act, which I have sponsored, to promote the use of renewable energy.
But net metering can only be possible in an open-access regime, where any end-user can tap into existing electricity grids and choose its own supplier upon payment of a wheeling charge for the use of electric wires. An initial open-access declaration will allow large electric users, or those with a minimum consumption of 750 kilowatt-hours or more, to buy their electricity directly from the power generators. And depending on the Energy Regulatory Commission’s (ERC) discretion, open access may eventually be offered to average households—much like the systems running in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and selected states in Australia.
Last week the Department of Energy announced that the requirements for declaring an open-access regime, as enumerated in the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira), would soon be met. This is a big step in reforming our power sector, which for years has allowed electricity consumers to remain a captive market to power distributors, and to pay one of the highest electricity rates in Asia.
But much more needs to be done. President Barack Obama’s strategy, for instance, invests heavily in R&D for developing clean technology to encourage the growth of clean-tech industries and create more jobs. The European Union, on the other hand, has pointed out the need for more well-trained engineers who will develop, operate and maintain future electricity networks.
These are issues that Comste is also trying to address in the Philippines. Our proposal to create the Renewable Energy Research and Development Institute (RERDI) has been allotted funding this year. Like Obama’s energy-innovation hub, RERDI will spur R&D on renewable energy in the country and link it to industries to produce innovative products and services. The General Appropriations Act for this year will also continue funding the Engineering Research and Development for Technology Consortium (ERDT), a consortium of the top eight engineering universities in the Philippines, so that we can generate more MS and PhD graduates in ICT, semiconductor and electronics, energy, food and health, environment and infrastructure.
The world is at an energy crossroads. We have to face the reality that our primary energy sources, such as oil and gasoline, are finite; and the processes by which we use them produce byproducts that contribute to the warming of our planet and the extreme weather we are experiencing now. And unless we start taking decisive, consistent actions right now, the legacy we will be leaving for the next generations will be bleak.
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