The high cost of power hobbles the country’s bid for energy efficiency, a private firm’s executive said.
This is an indication that the Philippines still “has more things to do” to achieve energy efficiency, Schneider Electric Philippines President Philippe Reveilhac said.
“If we compare [the Philippines] with more major countries, particularly in Europe, [which are mostly] energy efficient, there’s always a way to improve. The program they have been going through to reach the level of where they are, it’s something that the Philippines can implement very quickly [to become energy efficient as well].”
Reveilhac noted that the Philippines is one of the highest-rated country in the world when it comes to the cost of power.
Current electricity rate in the country is P10.52 per kilowatt-hour. This is the fifth-highest rate in the world.
Of the total retail electricity price, distribution charges of the Manila Electric Co. account for 16 percent; generation charges, 65 percent; transmission cost, 9 percent; and, value- added tax and other taxes, 10 percent.
Reveilhac said the high cost of power remain the top challenge in the Philippines’s bid to be energy-efficient in the next three years.
The National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Program readies the Philippines for energy-efficiency, but several challenges continue to linger, he added.
The national energy efficiency program is a declared policy of the government to promote the judicious conservation and efficient utilization of energy resources via the adoption of the cost-effective options to achieve the efficient use of energy to lessen environmental impact.
Primarily, the government goal toward energy efficiency and conservation is to make it a way of life, increase awareness and then attain certain targets.
Reveilhac said the labeling and efficiency standards in the euro zone are strictly implemented. This means that whenever consumers buy electrical products, they can see facts and figures indicating how energy-efficient they are.
While this is also carried out in the country through the Department of Energy’s Energy Labeling and Efficiency Standards, full implementation of this should be done, he said. “This is something that could be implemented here also.”
“Let’s say, for the 100 top consumers of this country, this is the way to do it. You just manage the 20 percent of the consumers that are consuming 80 percent of the energy,” he said.
With its implementation at the soonest, he sees that in three years’ time the country’s energy efficiency “will increase, and then you will be in a different situation. So the Philippines is ready [for the energy-efficiency challenge],” Reveilhac said.
