“Eventually, energy efficiency should be planned as a resource in the country’s energy mix” – PE2
PASAY CITY, 28 August 2018 – The Philippine Energy Efficiency Alliance (PE2) promoted energy efficiency as a new infrastructure asset class in the energy market, and proposed that governments, whether of the Philippines or other jurisdictions, should slowly move toward incorporating energy efficiency as a mainstreamed resource in planning its energy mix.
PE2 president Alexander Ablaza said during an energy panel discussion of the Philippines Infrastructure Conference held here today, “Eventually, energy efficiency should be planned as a resource in any country’s energy mix. Our economy needs to mobilize $243 billion in energy efficiency capital to harvest 45,900 megawatts from the demand-side of the Philippine energy market in the next 21 years.” Ablaza was joined by PE2 vice president Ruth Yu-Owen as co-panelist. PE2’s Maria Concepcion P. Simundac, Efren R. Resurreccion II and Luigi G. Eusebio likewise participated in the same infrastructure conference.
Ablaza reported that the International Energy Agency (IEA) established two months ago an independent high-level global commission to examine how progress on energy efficiency can be rapidly accelerated through new and stronger policy action. Through the last decade, IEA has become growingly convinced that, more than any single fuel, energy efficiency has a central role to play in meeting global sustainable energy goals. IEA analyses have shown that with the right policies, the global economy could double in size by 2040 while still maintaining broadly the same level of energy use as today. Those policies alone would enable the world to achieve more than 40% of the emissions cuts needed to reach international climate goals using cost-effective technologies already available.
PE2 also said that, after 29 years of perseveringly refiling a lapsed “EnerCon” measure since the 8th Congress, the Philippines finally rejoined the global movement of accelerating energy efficiency markets with the passage of the Republic Act 11285, otherwise known as the Energy Efficiency and Conservation (EE&C) Act, on April 12, 2019. The President’s approval of the bicameral-endorsed bill of the 17th Congress has finally shifted the energy-consuming market from the inertia of the 29-year voluntary market to one of policy-driven market transformation.
