Bleak, challenging energy sector outlook seen in ’23 [Business Mirror]
by Lenie Lectura | January 09, 2023| Published by Business Mirror | READ THE STORY HERE INDUSTRY stakeholders paint a bleak and very challenging power sector this year. The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) said rotating brownouts could happen in the second quarter of this year because of two reasons that were not included in earlier projections of the grid operator. “The power outlook for 2023 is bleak. We at ICSC do not foresee much improvement in the supply from both coal and fossil gas power plants,” ICSC senior policy advisor Pete Maniego Jr. said. He cited [...]
Increasing RE should take priority over going nuclear, think tank says [BusinessWorld]
INCREASING the share of renewable energy (RE) in the power mix should take priority over the Department of Energy’s (DoE’s) plans to introduce nuclear power, an energy think tank said.
EPIRA amendments urged to allow government role in power auctions [BusinessWorld]
THE power industry law needs to be amended to allow the government to play a role in power auctions, a senior legislator said. “There is a lot of fine tuning that we need for EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001); for example, the government should be allowed to hold a bidding process. As of now, under the CSP (Competitive Selection Process) regime, it’s Meralco (Manila Electric Co.) that seeks bids. The government should be allowed to hold a bid as well,” Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian told reporters on Friday.
PHL urged to decentralize power generation with more solar plants [BusinessWorld]
THE Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) said the Philippines needs to move towards more “distributed” power generation, which would involve the construction of more solar generation facilities while abandoning the current model of centralized baseload power, currently dominated by coal-fired plants. In an e-mail interview on Sept. 9, Pedro H. Maniego, senior policy advisor of ICSC, a climate and energy policy group, said that the dependence on coal renders the Philippines vulnerable to volatile international energy prices, and put forward solar as an alternative.
ICSC welcomes secretary nominations for DOE, DENR
QUEZON CITY, July 15, 2022 – International climate and energy policy group Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) welcomed the nomination of Raphael “Popo” Lotilla as the next secretary of the Department of Energy (DOE) and Ma. Antonia “Toni” Yulo-Loyzaga as the next secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in the Marcos Jr. administration’s Cabinet. Lotilla, whose nomination was announced Monday, previously served as energy secretary from 2005 to 2007 and as deputy secretary general of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA). He is currently a law professor at the University of the Philippines. Aboitiz [...]