Tacloban City- Coinciding the 10th year commemoration of Super Typhoon Yolanda, while addressing these pressing issues and accelerate energy transition in the region, the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) on Wednesday ( October 26) organized the first “Eastern Visayas Civil Society Forum on Just Energy Transition.”
The forum aims to bring together twenty-seven civil society organizations to discuss challenges and opportunities in ensuring access to clean, affordable, reliable, and secure energy, fostering an inclusive and sustainable future for every Filipino.
“Increasing the use of renewables can definitely lower electricity costs and help improve energy security and supply” ,say Arturo Tahup Director of ICSC said.
According to him ,the Philippines is at a critical point in its efforts to achieve sustainable development and economic growth. With energy demand in the country seen tripling between 2020 and 2040, the World Bank in its June 2023 report said the country’s energy sector needs to overcome the dual challenges of meeting fast-growing demand and transforming its fossil-fuel-based infrastructure while keeping the energy supply clean, affordable, secure, and reliable.
In fact data shows that the Philippines relies heavily on coal-the highest contribution to the power generation mix at nearly 60%, while renewable energy (RE) contributes nearly 22% to the energy mix. Data from the Department of Energy (DOE) showed that the country imported 87 percent of its coal and 98 percent of its crude oil to meet its energy demands in 2021.
The national government’s energy agenda highlights the importance of access to a more sustainable energy supply that relies on indigenous resources, like solar, wind, hydropower and geothermal, while minimizing the use of imported fossil fuels in a cost-effective manner.
Hence, the DOE has implemented the National Renewable Energy Program (NREP) 2020-2040, which sets a target of achieving a 35 percent share of RE in the generation mix by 2030, with a further increase to 50 percent by 2040.
However, coal-fired power plants remain the top source of energy for Eastern Visayas (EV) despite being the country’s geothermal powerhouse. At the same time, only 2 out of 11 electric cooperatives (ECs) in EV source a portion of their power supply from geothermal sources. These two electric cooperatives only serve 15.4% of the consumers in the region.
Additionally, the dominance of coal and oil-based power plants in the Visayas grid, which accounts for 53.9% of installed capacity, exposes the region to global price fluctuations such as the Ukraine-Russia conflict and Indonesia’s coal export ban in 2022. Given these circumstances, electricity price per kilowatt hour in the region is PHP18.28 last year.
Thischanging energy landscape presents economic opportunities for Eastern Visayas, given its abundant RE resources,” said Tahup, ICSC Re-Charge Pilipinas, during the forum.
The Leyte provincial and Ormoc City has adopted a renewable energy and encourge more Local Govt Units to go into green power.
Leyte Governor Jericho Petilla, who is a former DOE Secretary said that no longer an option from increasing power rate in the province is commited to use renewable energy which will contribute a clean enery and contributing a health environment.
” I’m not going to be happy na an Leyte will be using Solar Energy but I will be more happy if Everybody in province will use Solar and continue educate people na gumamit ng Solar Petilla added.–Miriam G.Desacada