A consumer group is pushing President Duterte to pursue an energy policy that will prioritize reliability and affordability, especially now that the country is set to undergo a massive infrastructure program.
Citizen Watch said the government is on the right track as the Energy department earlier said it is bent on shifting to a “behavior-based” energy mix to maintain reasonable power rates.
At the ASEAN 35th Senior Officials Meeting on Energy, DOE Secretary Alfonso Cusi earlier said the Philippines would need an additional capacity of 44,000 MW by 2040 that will support the government’s infrastructure and economic plans.
As such, Cusi said that the DOE “will implement policies that would increase our supply and make our electricity market more competitive while also addressing the perennial concerns of system inefficiencies.”
Citizen Watch said the move to prioritize competition rather than mandatory sourcing is what the country needs today and in the coming years.
“The 70-20-10 share of baseload, mid-merit and peaking plants, veers away from mandatorily sourcing generation from more expensive technologies and ensures that consumers are provided power supply that responds to their need for reliable and affordable electricity,” Citizen Watch secretary general Paco Pangalanan said.
The group, meanwhile, has called on the task force, who will create a create a simplified process for the fast track implementation of energy projects, developed by Executive Order 30 to look into the delays of around 90 power supply agreements (PSAs) that are on the Energy Regulatory Commission’s table.
“Fast tracking the construction of new power plants, only to hold in abeyance the processing of the approval and permit needed to supply their power to consumers not only contradicts the very objective of E.O. 30 but could potentially derail the country’s rapid economic growth” Pangalanan said.
