City lowers power bill with conservation programs

THE Iloilo City Government is implementing several energy conservation and saving programs and able to save and lower its electric power consumption.

Aside from saving electric power, an international institution like International Council for Local Environment Initiatives (ICLEI) has reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and air pollution, according to city environment and natural resources officer Noel Hechanova.

Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog is fully supporting “Clean Air and Climate Change” (an ICLEI program) and a forum to be conducted here with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on Friday, August 10, as part of the month-long Diamond Jubilee Charter celebration of the city.

Hechanova said the city has embarked on the enercon programs since its ICLEI membership in 2004, with a vision of having clean air, blue skies and a citizenry committed to sustain a balanced environment.

According to the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro), Mabilog sees the multi-sectoral collaboration of the citizens to ensure clean air and ecological balance by reducing the GHG emission.

Hechanova said the enercon programs cover the lamp retrofitting project from incandescent bulbs to high pressure sodium lights in 10,050 city street lights. The program was able to save P82,680 per day a power of 6,360 kilowatt hour (kwh) and avoided 3,752 kilograms of greenhouse gas per day.

The new City Hall is considered a green building with solar-assisted air conditioned units at the whole seventh floor. The solar-assisted system was able to save P710,218 per year or some P59,000 per month with 36 metric tons (MT) of carbon dioxide avoided per month.

A rain harvesting facility will soon be operational at the new City Hall with rainwater for use at all the seven floors including the roof deck area.

Lamp retrofitting was also encouraged by the City Government for the private sector with a conversion from incandescent lamps to compact fluorescent (CFL) lamps. This will be implemented in hospitals and shopping malls.

Robinsons Place in Iloilo City was the first to convert from fluorescent incandescent to CFLs with 2,435 lamps converted, 85,410 kwh per day of power saved and 50,735 kilograms per day of greenhouse gas avoided.