PE2 meets new EUMB head in IRR review for gov’t EE projects

TAGUIG CITY, 6 August 2019 – A delegation of the Policy Committee of the Philippine Energy Efficiency Alliance (PE2) joined public sector stakeholders in a follow-up focus group discussion on the draft Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation (EE&C) Act relating to Government-led energy efficiency projects. The Focus Group D meeting was chaired by newly re-appointed Energy Utilization and Management Bureau (EUMB) Director Patrick T. Aquino of the Department of Energy (DOE).

The PE2 delegation was composed of PE2 Policy Committee members Jagannathan Srinivasan, Richard A. Uy, Bernard E. Pacia, Theresa Acedillo Lapuz and Efren R. Resurreccion, and supported by PE2 member services and communications manager Luigi G. Eusebio.

The PE2 team continued to push for the inclusion of sufficient high-level language in the IRR to explicitly enable ESCO performance contract procurement and public-private partnership transactions for Government EE&C Projects, sharing comments on the need to involve the Commission on Audit and the removal of barriers related to ESCO performance contract procurement, multi-year contracting, eligibility of EE&C projects for PPP transactions (possibly reclassified as infrastructure), and the use of energy savings to pay for ESCO and other EE&C services.

During the same meeting, the Department of Finance was able to present its comments on debt financing modalities for EE&C projects. Also, Laurie Navarro shared the comments of the UK Prosperity Fund’s ASEAN Low Carbon Energy Programme (LCEP).