By Myrna M. Velasco
Published: August 26, 2013
The country’s “energy insecurity” cannot be resolved by only one technology, hence, former Energy Secretary Vincent S. Perez is batting for higher degree of diversification in future power supply.
After bowing out of government service, Perez has relegated himself into becoming one of the power industry players. The focus of his company, Alternergy Philippine Holdings has been on renewable energy (RE) developments, primarily wind energy.
In his presentation at a technical conference on the “Philippine Power Industry: Prospects and Forecasts,” Perez noted that Filipinos will no longer accept a scenario wherein the country will be plagued again with up to eight hours of rotating brownouts.
“The answer is in diversification of energy resources and the Philippines is rich in renewable energy resources from geothermal, hydropower and wind,” he stressed.
The technical conference was hosted by Australian firm GHD, which is also acting as the owner’s engineer for Alternergy’s 67-megawatt Pililla wind farm project in Rizal and Laguna provinces.
Perez warned of prospective crisis hitting the country another round if the policymakers will not be quick and decisive on their call for solutions.
Supply shortfalls already razed Mindanao’s economic growth prospects to the ground; and fears are escalating that such might be repeated in Luzon.
“The Philippine energy crisis is looming and has been looming for many years now. People are beginning to experience power shortages and the nightmare of 8-hour brownouts is something the Filipinos do not wish to repeat,” Perez reiterated.
As his genre of project development is on RE, Perez sets his leaning on that technology option. Albeit for many stakeholders in the power industry, the dominant opinion is for the country to embrace solutions that will address power needs based on what the circumstances require and the bigger caution is to ensure that project incentives will not be nicknamed “punishing subsidies.”
At some point, the “war between renewables and conventional fossil fuels” (i.e. coal technology) reached irreconcilable proportions, but the reality is, both will be needed in the power system. source
No comments:
Post a Comment