DOE to push energy bill

CEBU, Philippines -To give teeth to its efforts of promoting "energy efficient" lifestyle among Filipinos, the Department of Energy (DOE) is bent on pushing for the passage of the "Energy Efficiency and Energy Conservation" Bill in Congress.

“We will try as much on our part. We want to pass [the Bill] as soon as possible within this Congress,” said DOE undersecretary Loreta G. Ayson during the recently concluded Philippine Energy Efficiency Forum in Cebu, held at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino.

DOE’s programs toward promoting energy efficiency will have slim chances of taking off if the bill will not be passed into law, as there are provisions in the re-filed bill that will strengthen the implementation of DOE’s current programs.

 Part of which, she said is the provision of incentives to energy efficient industries, companies, such as income tax holidays, duty and tax-free for importation, discounts, among others.

She said DOE will also help the Congressmen who are pushing for this bill, as well as endorse this to the Senate level.

As part of the Energy Reform Agenda, the DOE continuously entices energy-intensive companies to adopt best practices and energy-efficiency technologies to significantly reduce their energy consumption.

Earlier, DOE secretary Rene Almendras said that a 10 percent reduction in electricity consumption would be equivalent to a hefty P59 billion savings a year.

Present technologies allow for reduction of as much as 20 percent. This savings will help the country in reducing costly fuel imports, he said.  

The DOE has since been implementing energy efficiency and conservation measures, helping the government save 24.8 million barrels of fuel oil equivalent last year—an improvement from the 22.6 million barrels recorded a year ago.

According to Ayson, because of this move, even without the passage of the law yet, DOE is moving up to strengthen the implementation of the “Energy Labeling Program” which is now jointly handled by DOE and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

To save the Philippines from becoming a “dumping ground” of inefficient, yet cheap appliances and electrical materials, Ayson said the DOE is now working on handling the program so that DTI can only focus on the monitoring and compliance of the standard.

Hopefully, by early next year, DOE will be able to assume some responsibilities in the labeling of program, while the agency is now on its way to purchase equipment that will be used to test energy-efficient appliances.

At present though, despite the noise in the climate change advocacy, and other “greening” initiatives, majority of Filipinos still has to be aware of the benefits of using energy-efficient appliances.

Ayson said there is still a need to educate the consumers in buying (only) energy efficient appliances, as it will not only help the conservation of scarce and expensive cost of oil, but it will also provide huge savings in household electric bill expense.

Ayson, was in Cebu as the keynote speaker of the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) organized Philippine Energy Efficiency Forum, attended by traders across industries and sectors. (FREEMAN)