Monsada bares energy wish list for next gov’t

By Victor V. Saulon | Posted on May 10, 2016 10:52:00 PM

ENERGY Secretary Zenaida Y. Monsada has enumerated a list of ongoing and unfinished initiatives that she hopes the next administration will continue.

“The mandate of DoE (Department of Energy) is to ensure that there is adequate, continuous and reliable power,” she said when asked about her wish list during a briefing on the country’s power situation during the election period.

She said her department’s efforts to fulfill its mandate were all that she hopes the new leadership will carry on. These include the rules to fully flesh out Republic Act No. 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 as well as private sector participation and regulations to usher in orderly competition in the energy market.

These include rules governing retail competition and open access (RCOA) in the Philippine electric power industry, which give qualified “contestable” consumers the option to choose their preferred retail electricity suppliers; rules on the implementation of competitive selection process (CSP), which requires power contracts to be bid out to suppliers; and a Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) for Mindanao.

Ms. Monsada included the “green energy option” or the mechanism to empower end users to choose renewable energy in meeting their energy requirements; and a power development plan for each region.

She also wanted a clear classification of power plants — whether baseload, mid-merit ,or peaking — to ensure that renewable energy sources do not compete with fossil fuel-fired plants to guide the market’s direction toward the department’s fuel-mix aspiration of sourcing energy equally from coal, natural gas, and renewable energy.

“Nuclear is still an option,” the energy secretary said — adding that toward the latter part of the year, the Philippines will host a forum, as suggested by the International Atomic Energy Agency, that could lead to the country crafting its own nuclear energy policy.

Ms. Monsada also said she wanted legislation covering energy efficiency standards, which she noted is currently voluntary for households and industries.

She said the task force created to ensure adequate power during the election period and a separate one to ensure security of energy facilities were addressing continuing issues.

She also pushed for legislation to criminalize installations and planting of trees underneath transmission lines. The regulation should include procedures for raising these cases to the courts, as well as easing the process of securing environment permits to clear vegetation under power lines.

Source: www.bworldonline.com