Net Metering: An excellent RP response to the crisis in electricity production (Second of two parts)

Net Metering, politics and finance

To be implemented in the Philippines, of course, Net Metering faces some difficulties. Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes is a pragmatic, imaginative and humorous man. In discussions last February, he was quick to point out that technologically adept and imaginative Filipinos would learn how to jam the meters so they would only run backward, “so they could make hanapbuhay at the expense of Meralco.”    

But designing tamper-proof metering systems is merely another challenge and employment opportunity for other Pinoy computer geeks. The political problems are more formidable. After all, no monopoly such as an electric utility company willingly shares the manufacture and sale of its product. And such companies have massive political clout...

Political problems require political solutions, and we can only hope that enlightened politicians will come forward to champion and implement the peoples’ right — and duty — to be actively involved in making their own power, thereby reducing Philippine dependency on foreign sources of energy and environmentally destructive energy sources such as coal and the atomic nucleus. 

Net Metering requires financial mechanisms far beyond my expertise. True, I often feel more educated on energy issues than economists. Many of them are entirely ignorant about the science of petroleum but airily dismiss the geologic fact of peak oil that underlies the accelerating crisis in global energy. But we must rely on economists to implementing populist Net Metering nationwide.

Surely Filipino financiers and industrialists can devise various mechanisms. How about a loan to finance a family system: an affordable downpayment and monthly payments equal to some fraction of the money saved by using the system?

How about government tax breaks for manufacturers that install PCV panels on their factory roofs?  

How about soliciting help from developed countries to develop and construct Net Metering grids and alternative energy systems of modest wattage to feed it? The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) provided by the Kyoto Protocol rewards developed countries that provide capital and clean technology for a project that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, with credits toward meeting their own emission reduction targets. Such an arrangement with Spain is already in practice in the form of the Solar Power Technology Support project of the Department of Energy that is electrifying remote Mindanao barangays with solar power. Another agreement, with Denmark, subsidizes the Bangui wind farm, and German funding was recently been obtained for two more wind farms.

The best Filipino solutions to the energy crisis employ Filipinos in the Philippines. Ideally, Filipinos should manufacture solar and wind devices. For example, if small-scale photovoltaic production were to be a major source to feed into the grid, we should encourage foreign manufacturers of solar panels and the exciting new nanotechnology films to manufacture them here, employing abundant and very competitive Filipino labor.

The potential for employing many Filipinos, should Net Metering be established here, is significant. Certainly, many Filipinos would be employed in installing them and connecting them to the grids.

Net Metering is doable in the Philippines. Let’s do it, for the sake of our country, the national and global environments, and our own pocketbooks.

To learn more about Net Metering, the best place to start is at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Metering.

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Kelvin Rodolfo is concurrently Professor Emeritus with the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois in Chicago, and Adjunct Professor with the National Institute of Geological Sciences, University of the Philippines-Diliman. Discussion and corrections are welcome at [email protected].