CCCI encourages members to shift to renewable energy

CEBU, Philippines —  The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) is starting a campaign urging businesses to source power supply from renewable-energy to cushion the effects of rising world fuel prices to their respective businesses.

Newly elected CCCI president Charles Kenneth Co said this is one of the priority advocacies that will be tackled by his administration, providing member companies options to save up on power consumption expenses.  

The Chamber has started to provide a list of renewable energy providers in Cebu for companies consuming more than 100 kwH per month and source directly from green energy providers.

Co lauded the government’s stance in promoting the shift to green energy saying “now the government is making it easier for us” to avail of cheaper and environment friendly power sources.

This is also to prepare businesses to protect their businesses from power shortfall, which is forecasted to happen this summer.

According to Co, in his recent meeting with officials from Visayan Electric, the power distribution company warned of a probable power shortage in the summer season.

Because of this, the Chamber urged businesses to start availing of renewable energy sources.

Aside from business continuity, and eradicating the use of fuel-power generators during power shortage, companies can also save electricity expenses by shifting to renewable energy sources.

For starters, he said companies may start using solar panels, LED bulbs, update old machines and appliances to power efficient ones, among others.

Meanwhile, the Philippine government has been encouraging electricity consumers to source power from alternative, renewable sources like solar system, through the net-metering scheme.

The net-metering scheme is the first non-fiscal incentive mechanism under the Renewable Energy (RE) Act of 2008. It is a billing mechanism that credits solar energy system owners for the electricity they add to the grid.

The scheme  allows house owners and commercial establishments to install solar photovoltaic panels and partly satisfy their electricity demand. The excess power that they generate is delivered to the utility and used to offset the customer’s electricity consumption.

The basic concept of the net metering is that if the consumption exceeds generation, customers pay for net per kilowatt-hour consumed.

In Cebu, Visayan Electric is encouraging consumers to avail of this scheme, although as a business, it will not be gaining anything from this profitably.