Thursday, July 17, 2008 DOE to check if gov’t agencies comply with energy saving policy
THE Department of Energy (DOE) will strictly monitor government offices to determine whether they are complying to the energy conservation policy of President Arroyo.
In the Kapihan sa PIA yesterday, DOE Supervisor Saul Gonzalez said that they are collating the cost-saving and cost-reduction among National Government offices and government-owned and controlled corporations.
However, he said there is no sanction to government officials who will be found to have used so much energy using government resources.
“We conduct spot-checking on the use of electricity in their offices and fuel in their assigned vehicles. The result of the spot-checking will be evaluated and will be given a grade,” Gonzalez said.
“The grade given shall be displayed in government offices, which were already spot-checked for the public to see. They must be proud if they have good grades in cost-
reduction,” he said.
Geothermal
The DOE has assigned two teams of spot-checkers in Cebu who started their job yesterday. The spot-checking will last until Friday in Region 7. They will move to Region 8 by Saturday.
When asked about the volume of fuel imports, Gonzalez said imported oil is 34 percent of the energy consumption in 2007. The 66 percent is local oil, local natural gas, local coal, geothermal and bio-gas.
On the other hand, Moses Red, National Power Corp. corporate staff specialist, said power consumers in Central Visayas are less affected when petroleum prices increased because 80 percent of the power sources come from geothermal.
The other plants are using bunker oil (seven percent), coal (10 percent) and diesel (three percent).
Lito Fuelda, vice president for external affairs of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) said that they are collating the cost-saving and cost-reduction best practices among company members.
“We wish to publish that in the local papers because we are at the receiving end in the importation of energy,” Fuelda said.
In the high prices of fuel, Fuelda said CCCI acknowledged that we are practically helpless at the situation because this is a global problem.
Fuelda said that some CCCI members are floating the idea of reducing the working days from five to four, or six to four, but this is quite complicated because they have to consider the different sectors covered by the chamber.
Transportation
“Some sectors would say it’s great, but some sectors would say it’s not good. If we look at it by sector, the manufacturing sector is not in favor because it will affect productivity,” he said.
He said other sectors are amenable because they can save at least 20 percent of transportation cost by not using energy for one day. (EOB)
