PE2 co-organizes ESCO certification workshop with LCEP for DOE-EUMB
TAGUIG CITY, 4 February 2020 – The Philippine Energy Efficiency Alliance (PE2) and the UK Prosperity Fund’s ASEAN Low Carbon Energy Programme (LCEP) jointly held today a PE2-LCEP ESCO certification workshop in support of the need of the Energy Utilization Management Bureau (EUMB) of the Department of Energy (DOE) to craft specific guidelines for the certification of ESCOs under the policy framework of Republic Act 11285, otherwise known as the Energy Efficiency and Conservation (EE&C) Act.
The DOE participants were led by EUMB Director Patrick T. Aquino and Division Chief Artemio P. Habitan. The UK-LCEP delegation was represented by William Hudson of Carbon Trust, Thomas K. Dreessen, a seasoned international ESCO expert, and Laurie B. Navarro. PE2 president Alexander Ablaza led a 30-person delegation from PE2, which includes senior representatives from Advanced Energy Technologies, Azbil Phils, Beyond Energy Solutions Technology, Climargy, Concepcion Carrier Air Conditioning, Delta Dore, EconoServ Solutions Int’l, Engie Services Phils, Geosphere Technologies, Hi-Cool Engineering, Manila Electric Company, Meralco Energy (MServ), OSP ESCO Int’l, PNOC Renewables Corp, Signify Phils, Solrev Energy, Total Renewable and Energy Efficiency Solutions, Upgrade Energy Phils and the European Chamber of Commerce of the Phils.
During the workshop, LCEP presented the following recommendations to the ESCO industry and other stakeholders:
a. Certifying body - Government with experienced independent EE Certification Committee (EECC)
b. Certificate classification
- Registered ESCOs
- Certified ESCOs
c. Type of certification - Certified ESCO – verified competency to deliver performance-based EE services
d. Evaluation criteria
- Registered ESCO – corporate & technical capacity
- Certified ESCO – performance-based project savings experience & results, customer references
e. Certification process
- Registered ESCO – Review of data
- Certified ESCO – Verification of project data by interviewing customers
f. Term length
- Registered ESCO - 2 years
- Certified ESCO - 3 years
g. Costs - Fees to be collected from ESCO applicants. EECC to be supported by government budgets.
PE2 has a continuing conversation with LCEP for various barrier removal interventions in the EE&C market. In earlier meetings in July and September 2019, PE2 was pleased to learn that LCEP was interested in removing persistent policy barriers that prevented ESCO performance contracting and public-private partnership (PPP) transactions for energy efficiency projects implemented in the public sector.
The UK Prosperity Fund through its Foreign and Commonwealth Office has awarded a 3-year program called the ASEAN Low Carbon Energy Programme (LCEP) to Ernst and Young with Carbon Trust, a UK consulting company as one of the LCEP delivery partners.
Carbon Trust informed PE2 that LCEP will provide policy support, capacity building and technical assistance to facilitate green finance flows and improve the regulatory, policy and practical conditions for energy efficiency measures in Southeast Asia. It will support five broad types of activity: [1] Capacity building of government, institutions and business; [2] Policy reform of energy frameworks and standards; [3] Market development by strengthening connections between project developers and investors; [4] Raising awareness of available technologies to increase the uptake of energy efficient products and services; and, [5] Partnership coordination and commercial ventures.
The Carbon Trust is leading the delivery of the energy efficiency component of the LCEP across five countries: Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
