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Friday, June 02, 2006
Ong: Managing electricity
By Ted Aldwin Ong
Misreadings
IN SEPT. 15, 2005, Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas issued Executive Order (EO) 51 known as "An Executive Order Enhancing and Expanding the City's Program on Fuel and Energy Conservation."
The objective of this EO is to "help in the global effort of reducing greenhouse gas emission that causes global warming brought about by the use of fuel and energy, bring about financial savings to the City and to cushion the impact of oil price increase." Talking on global warming and greenhouse gas emission is where Mayor Treñas comes closer to being an "environmentalist."
Whether this Order is effectively enforced down to the barangay level is a totally different story. I assume that the City Government of Iloilo is sincere in curbing its electricity consumption for it spends millions of pesos of people's money in its electricity bills alone. If there is an entity in Iloilo City that badly needs management in its electricity consumption it is the City Government.
This effort of the City Government is also known as demand side management or DSM. The Responsible Ilonggos for Sustainable Energy together with the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Office for Environmental Concerns of Central Philippine University recently held a forum on DSM and energy efficiency with Dr. Alexander Ablaza as resource person.
In the forum, it was learned that through DSM power shortage could be addressed, such as the 3-megawatts power shortage in Iloilo City that caused Mayor Treñas to panic claiming that it will result to massive blackout. Also through DSM, additional power plants may no longer be needed such as the construction of coal plant that Mayor Treñas is also endorsing. That makes the good Mayor in the league of inconsistent environmentalists.
The experience of Thailand on DSM is a good example for the Philippines. For Dr. Ablaza, we refer to DSM when the six letter word is imminent - CRISIS, like the power crisis that Mayor Treñas has been clamoring since December 2005. The "Thai government adopted a five year comprehensive DSM Plan for its power sector covering 1993-1997 after recognizing the severe impacts accelerated energy demand."
It was formulated and implemented with a total budget of 189 million dollars. The programme included switching lamp production from 40 and 20 watts fat tubes to 36 and 18 watts slim tubes. The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand also promoted the use of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) instead of incandescent lamps through price differentials.
Through its Green Building Program, commercial buildings obtained CFLs at a subsidized price and embarked on an energy audit on existing buildings and design retrofitting of electrical systems to comply with the energy efficiency requirements set by the government.
Lamp retrofitting is also part of EO No. 51 signed by Mayor Treñas, but until today we can still find public and barangay gyms using electricity intensive mercury lamps especially in the summer season were barangays are holding basketball tournament and commemorating fiesta and festivals.
This means that the City Government has poorly implemented its DSM efforts up to the household level. I also doubt how much savings did the City Government acquired since the implementation of the EO in terms of money and electricity consumption.
It is time that the City Government sincerely address the growing demand of electricity in Iloilo City not by putting up additional power plants but through a massive campaign for demand side management and energy efficiency. This effort will entail a lot of savings both to the City Government and to electricity consumers who are burdened by very expensive electricity rates.
Dr. Ablaza referred to DSM as a basketball player in the bench, only called out as a substitute when in fact it can be a three-point shooter. Mayor Treñas must call out its three-point shooter now and implement energy efficiency measures instead of crying blackout! blackout! as a result of Panay Electric Company's inefficiency. For comments, email them to tao.ssi@gmail.com
(June 2, 2006 issue)
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