PE2 shows businesses how EE can cut cost and emissions

PE2 partners with ECCP anew for Energy Smart Forum 2025

MAKATI CITY, 28 August 2025 – Philippine Energy Efficiency Alliance (PE2) vice president Theresa Acedillo-Lapuz encouraged businesses to deploy energy efficiency solutions to cut costs and reduce carbon footprints. The PE2 call was followed by a discussion among multi-sectoral energy efficiency experts during the 14th run of the Energy Smart Forum as one of the pillar events of PE2 associate member, the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP). PE2 continues to serve as one of the annual event’s industry partners.

The forum, with the theme "Driving Energy Revolution: Charting the Path to a Sustainable and Resilient Future,” brought together key stakeholders and industry leaders for insightful discussions on leading the Philippine energy sector with strategies and policy updates to accelerate the Philippines’ journey towards a more sustainable and secure energy sector towards greater resilience, efficiency, and sustainability.                                      

According to Lapuz, the 2024 UNEP Emissions Gap Report warns that the climate crisis is accelerating as wildfires, heatwaves, storms, and droughts intensify worldwide. Current national commitments fall far short, placing the world on a trajectory toward 2.6 to 3.1°C of warming this century, which would necessitate costly large-scale carbon removal in the future. Without urgent and energy efficiency (EE) technology and unprecedented action, 1.5°C will soon be unattainable, and even 2 °C will be in jeopardy.

Lapuz explained how EE technologies such as higher-efficiency centralized HVAC systems can deliver 30% to 50% energy savings with payback periods shorter than 5 years. High-efficiency motors and motor drives can deliver 5% to 60% energy savings with paybacks less than 3 years.

The PE2 vice president also compared the benefits of water-cooled and air-cooled HVAC by presenting a case study wherein a replacement of air-cooled to water-cooled systems resulted in 36.69% energy savings, a cost reduction of 25.8M pesos, a carbon reduction of 23,926.45 tons and a payback of 4.5 years. Another EE case study involving a centralized IBMS and EMS for a retail facility delivered 15% energy savings, cost reduction of 42.9M pesos, a payback period of 12-16 months and a carbon reduction of 329.24 tons. She likewise showcased the air conditioning retrofit from centralized to a distributed cooling system in the UCPB head office building, which enjoys 33% energy savings, an annual cost reduction of 14.8M pesos, a carbon reduction of 16, 457.33 tons and a payback period of 3.33 years.

A high-efficiency motor retrofit in 1750 kW of blowers and pumps increased motor efficiency from sub-80% to over 95% with an investment of 134,000 USD, cost reduction of 168k USD and a payback period of 0.67 years.

Another case study in the food-and-beverage sector entailed the installation of water flowmeters, recycling of pasteurization and wash water, steam condensate recovery and recycling of backwash. The EE measures required an investment of 1.5M USD and resulted in a cost savings of 1.68M USD, CO2 footprint cut by 3,480 tons and a payback period of 0.89 years. Another case study in a semiconductor manufacturing facility retrofitted a 430 TR centralized chilled water system which improved plant efficiency from 1.18 kW/TR to 0.88 kW/TR, reduced energy costs by 9.8M pesos. The investment of 18.4M pesos was paid back in 2.6 years.

Lastly, Lapuz said that if we commit to making energy efficiency a priority today, we can enhance our nation’s energy security and build a sustainable tomorrow.

PE2 VP for Internal Affairs and ECCP Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Committee Co-Chairperson Ruth Yu-Owen gave an orientation on the private-sector led REPH100 Initiative on the importance of organizing activities that empower both local and foreign companies to contribute to the Philippines’ renewable energy and sustainability agenda. She also moderated the panel discussion and open forum for Session II on Unleashing the Full Power of Renewables: From Policy to Reality.

Event sponsors included PE2 members Upgrade Energy Philippines, AdventEnergy (Aboitiz Power Corporation) and Stratcon Philippines.