The Municipality of Paranas in Samar is moving forward in developing its 15-year renewable energy (RE) roadmap, bringing together communities, government offices, civil society groups, the academe, and energy stakeholders to help shape the municipality’s energy future.
On August 24, stakeholders gathered at Kirigtaan Hall in Paranas for the RE Roadmap Multistakeholder Consultation, where they reviewed the municipality’s energy situation and provided inputs on the initial targets, programs, policies, and activities developed during an earlier scoping workshop. This was followed by a three-day technical writeshop from August 26 to 28, where the municipal Technical Working Group (TWG) began translating these inputs into the working draft of the roadmap.
“As we go from the TWG activity, the stakeholders’ meeting [is] an opportunity for us to come together and define the final energy future that we want for Paranas—[one] that is clean, reliable, affordable, resilient, and responsive to the needs of our community,” said Paranas Municipal Mayor Elvira Babalcon, who emphasizes that having RE resources is only one part of the equation.
“Paranas is blessed with abundant natural resources and significant potential for renewable energy. But realizing this potential requires more than technology and investment,” she said, emphasizing the need for strong local leadership, community participation, responsible private sector engagement, and collaboration among different sectors.
Grounding the roadmap in local energy realities
Before deciding where Paranas wants to go in the next 15 years, participants first looked at how electricity is currently supplied and used in the municipality. ICSC Senior Data Analyst Charles Jason Diaz presented an overview of the Philippine power system and basic RE concepts before discussing the local energy profile of Paranas: the municipality is connected to the Visayas grid through the Leyte-Samar subgrid, with 72% of electricity consumption coming from residential users.
Initial assessments showed several possible RE resources: Solar potential was estimated at around 67 megawatts, particularly through rooftop installation, while wind, micro-hydro, and biomass from agricultural residues and livestock waste were also identified for further assessment.
Participants were then divided into sectors and asked to validate the information presented with what they actually experience. They also identified missing data, information that needed updating, and questions that need to be answered before the municipality moves forward with specific projects.
Among the issues raised was the need for more barangay-level information on government facilities, schools, health centers, churches, commercial establishments, existing RE systems, electric vehicles, and available waste and biomass resources.
Participants pointed out that some barangays are within protected areas, making environmental safeguards an important consideration in deciding where projects can be developed. They also raised practical questions on how communities can learn more about RE, how RE can help manage electricity costs, and how solar panels and batteries should eventually be maintained and disposed of. These questions are closely tied to the municipality’s experience with disasters and climate impacts.
“Our experience with disasters and the growing impacts of climate change reminds us that energy security is also a matter of resilience and public welfare. We need an energy system that can support our homes, schools, businesses, agriculture, health services, and future investments even in times of crisis,” Babalcon said.
Making RE work for communities
The discussions then shifted to looking at what available RE resources can do for the people. RE-Charge Pilipinas Coordinator Orlando Quesada introduced Community Renewable Energy (CORE), an approach where communities can take a more active role in local RE systems, whether as users, members, partners, or co-owners.
Examples showed how, beyond household electricity needs, RE can also support schools, health facilities, community services, and livelihoods. This opened opportunities for Paranas to explore projects where communities can have a stronger role in planning and managing local energy systems.
ICSC Energy Transition Advisor Alberto Dalusung III, meanwhile, discussed Productive Use of Renewable Energy (PURE), focusing on how reliable electricity can support livelihoods and local businesses. This is particularly relevant for Paranas, where agriculture and fisheries can benefit from more reliable energy: RE can potentially support irrigation, agricultural processing, ice-making, cold storage, and other facilities needed by farmers and fisherfolk.
The discussion also explored biomass, using agricultural residues such as coconut shells and rice husks for energy production, although their actual potential will depend on available feedstock, collection requirements, technology, and cost.
These generated more concrete ideas for the roadmap, including solar-powered irrigation, cold storage facilities, RE systems for health facilities, solarized evacuation and multipurpose buildings, smart lighting, electric mobility and charging stations, and localized energy systems.
Refining programs and policies
Stakeholders also reviewed the initial programs, policies, and activities identified during the scoping workshop.
Proposed directions included the solarization and energy-efficiency improvement of municipal facilities, community RE projects, household and school solarization, microgrids, and biomass development. Participants also discussed measures to support these projects, including clean energy procurement, green building and permitting guidelines, financing mechanisms, and policies that can encourage greater community participation in RE.
Transport was another area explored, and proposals included locally produced e-trikes, RE-powered charging stations, incentives for pioneer electric vehicle operators, and a gradual shift of some municipal and public transport vehicles toward electric alternatives.
The discussions also covered important but less visible parts of the transition, including better energy data, stronger local government capacity, battery storage, grid modernization, barangay energy systems, and policies for the eventual recycling and disposal of solar panels and batteries.
Different sectors identified how they can contribute: Civil society and people’s organizations can help mobilize communities, while Samar State University and the Department of Education were identified as possible partners for technical assistance, training, and information and education activities.
From consultation to writing the roadmap
Following the consultation, the Paranas TWG held the technical writeshop at the Summit Hotel in Tacloban City, Leyte.
The first day focused on writing and validating the municipality’s profile and energy baseline, with working groups reviewing Paranas’ socioeconomic and environmental conditions, electricity demand and consumption, existing power supply, electricity rates and grid reliability, energy efficiency, existing RE projects, and potential RE resources. After each writing session, the groups presented their outputs to the TWG for validation, allowing the draft to be checked against the experience and records of different municipal offices.
The TWG included representatives from key municipal offices, with Mayor Babalcon and Vice Mayor Eunice Babalcon joining officials from planning and development, engineering, agriculture, treasury, disaster risk reduction and management, tourism, and other offices., and SAMELCO II and Samar State University worked closely with the municipality, particularly on power demand forecasting.
The succeeding sessions focused on refining the municipality’s programs, projects, and activities and their investment requirements, identifying milestones, integrating existing RE projects, strengthening capacity-building and risk/risk management plans, and reviewing the roadmap line by line before identifying next steps toward finalization.
The process also made clear that an RE roadmap is not simply a list of projects. Each proposal has to answer practical questions: Is it technically feasible? Who will implement it? Where will funding come from? And who will operate and maintain it in the long run?
A roadmap built together
The consultation and writeshop provided two different but connected spaces for Paranas. It allowed communities and sectors to question data, raise concerns, and share what they want to see in the municipality’s energy future. The writeshop allowed the TWG and technical partners to begin turning those inputs into a plan that the LGU can implement.
Ultimately, the roadmap is not only about increasing RE capacity. It is also about how energy can keep critical facilities operating during emergencies, support businesses and public services, make farms and fisheries more productive, and provide communities with more reliable and resilient energy systems.
“Let us therefore make this roadmap a product of shared vision and collective action. The success of this roadmap does not depend only on the local government unit; it will depend on what we can accomplish together,” Babalcon said.
ABOUT THE INITIATIVE
The activities form part of “Localizing Energy Transition: Empowering Local Governments to Co-Create the Renewable Energy Roadmap,” a series of capacity-building engagements supporting local governments in developing RE plans grounded in their needs, resources, and development priorities.
The initiative is led by the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) in partnership with AktivAsia Pilipinas, with support from the Tara Climate Foundation. It is also part of the Clean, Affordable and Secure Energy (CASE) for Southeast Asia project led by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and implemented on behalf of the International Climate Initiative (IKI).
