ENERGY SUMMIT IDENTIFIES "QUICK WINS"
MEDIA RELEASE
February 5, 2008

The 2008 Philippine Energy Summit held at the SMX convention center, Mall of Asia from 29-31 January 2008 identified some initiatives that apparently meet with some consensus (“green” initiatives). Some initiatives require additional information or clarification (“yellow” iInitiatives). Other initiatives are contentious and will require extended consultations and negotiations among the stakeholders involved (“red” initiatives).

The “color coding” of initiatives is a way by which DOE is scheduling the further processing of the outputs of the Energy Summit.

In the ADB follow-on workshops held to review the outputs of the Summit, the 120 DOE officials and resource persons from government, the private sector, and NGOs tentatively identified the following initiatives as priority initiatives that can already be pursued (“green” in the DOE lingo).

Power Cost

The top most concern that was raised during the pre-Summit are the following: Facilitating and ensuring true competition in the electric power industry; and making electricity rates competitive for the industry and business sectors. On the first concern, the solution offered was to revisit EPIRA and its implementation that will focus on, among other things, (1) appropriate threshold level of privatization of NPC generating assets and NPC-IPP contracts; exemption of the self-generation facilities in the imposition of universal change and certificate of compliance requirements of the Energy Regulation Commission, and the issuance of detailed Competition Rules.

On making electricity rates competitive, it was proposed that a concept paper on Performance-based Industry Competitiveness Fund be developed jointly by the DOE and DOF to help industry compete globally. There was also an agreement to accelerate open access and retail competition in PEZA economic zones as what the President has directed DOE during the Energy Command Conference in August 2007.

Another strategy that was identified was to better develop targeting of subsidies for the poor, which include the proposal to remove or exempt small island grids and missionary areas from the imposition of universal charge which is currently at P0.04 per KWH.
There is also a consensus that to lower rates, there should be a program to implement efficient electricity system management and consumption. To realize this, it was agreed that the Time of Use (TOU) program and pricing must be accelerated.

Oil Price

Tax is a significant component of oil prices. This has led some sectors to clamor for suspension, scrapping, or calibration of the implementation of RVAT as the major means of mitigating the impact of high prices.

However, tax revenue is the lifeblood of government. A compromise initiative is for government to develop a targeted-expenditures scheme for pro-poor projects from oil tax collections. This can include credit, entrepreneurial, and lifeblood scholarship programs for, say, children of public utility drivers. Tax revenue can also be used to support infrastructure development, improvement, as in the case of highways.

Promoting Renewable and Alternative Energy

The immediate actions recommended to promote renewable and alternative energy include the following: improvement of RE and AE policies anchored on the passage of the Renewable Energy Bill and the National Biofuels Program, the creation of a “one-stop-shop” for sustainable energy projects, the improved access to financial packages, and capacity building initiatives. Strengthening public and private sector partnership in promoting RE and AE is envisioned to serve as the key means for ensuring the installation of some 2,500 MW renewable energy facilities by 2025, and the utilization of biofuel blends of at least 2 percent biodiesel and 10 percent bio-ethanol blends by 2009 and 2011, respectively. This can be complemented by the start of commercial operation of public buses fueled by compressed natural gas and the expansion of taxi operations utilizing auto LPG as fuel.

Promoting Energy efficiency

In the area of energy efficiency, among the priority proposals are a major retrofit program for commercial, industrial, and residential sectors, public transport leasing, the expansion of mass transport systems, the promotion of non-motorized technologies, the rationalized operation of tricycles, and an aviation fuel efficiency enhancement program.

Accelerating investments in oil and gas exploration

Among the issues and concerns that were raised during the workshop by the stakeholders, which consisted mainly of petroleum companies, the principal item was their problem in securing the permits and approvals from various government agencies and local government units (LGU), as well as from the non-government organizations (NGO) and the host communities, in order for their petroleum exploration and development to proceed. The initiative that was presented to deal with this issue is for the Department of Energy to set-up an Energy Investment Center, a unit that would serve as a one-stop shop for petroleum investors that would provide them assistance in dealing with stakeholders on the social, environmental and security issues of their operation and concerns with other government agencies.

Social Mobilization

In the area of social mobilization, one of the key concerns expressed in the Summit was the need for a platform for convergent cross-sectoral actions on energy issues. Among the initiatives that have been identified are the development of a decentralized multi-stakeholder energy planning system, a campaign for a mind and behavior “switch” towards energy conservation, alternative energy, and renewable energy, formulate and advocate an energy policy agenda at both national and local levels, create multi-stakeholder implementation mechanisms, and develop capacity

Performance Monitoring

The main concern relating to performance monitoring is the lack of a cross-sector performance monitoring system for energy. Among the initiatives in this area are the formulation of a cross-sector performance monitoring and feedback plan, the formulation of cross-sector performance indicators and standards, the establishment of a cross-sector performance monitoring and feedback system that will conduct a cross-sector performance baseline, build a database, and establish an awards and incentives system. Also, capacity development in performance monitoring needs to be undertaken for the various stakeholders. An immediate concern to be addressed is how to inject transparency in the sharing of energy information so that it is more widely available to all the stakeholders.

The performance monitoring system will build on existing indicator systems for energy, as well as the Organizational Performance Improvement Frameworks of agencies belonging to the energy family.

Carbon Tax

The Summit generated a lot of controversial ideas about how to solve the country’s energy problems. While seemingly unfeasible, they caught the attention of many as merely being “ahead of their time”. One such example of a “yellow” or “green” initiative is the proposal for a carbon tax. Much of the discussions at the Summit revolved around ways of reducing the prices of oil products by eliminating tariffs and value added taxes on them. A radically different view however also came out of the Summit with a proposal to, instead, raise taxes on all products that emit carbon and abolish income taxes. The logic of this proposal is that taxes on oil products effectively penalize polluters and discourage consumption of polluting products like diesel or coal. Moreover, such higher prices for oil products will encourage development of the alternative fuels that offer the long-term solutions to the country’s energy problem.

The Energy Summit generated more than 100 initiatives to address energy problems. These initiatives came from the various sector represented – the oil industry, industry and export sector, the transport sector, the consumer sector, and the labor sector.

“One Summit will not solve the energy problems of the country,” Secretary Reyes pointed out. “The Summit was a good start that allowed us to address the energy problems in concert.” In extracting the voluminous and varied inputs from the stakeholders, the DOE has the obligation to give these inputs careful attention and consideration in formulating the country’s energy program of action.
http://www.doe.gov.ph/news/PressReleases.asp?attach=386

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Scientists at the University of Leeds are turning low-grade sludge into high-value gas in a process which could make eco-friendly biodiesel even greener and more economical to produce.

Biodiesel “ motor fuel derived from vegetable oil - is a renewable alternative to rapidly depleting fossil fuels.

It is biodegradable and non-toxic, and production is on the up.

But for each molecule of biodiesel produced, another of low-value crude glycerol is generated, and its disposal presents a growing economic and environmental problem.

Now researchers at Leeds have shown how glycerol can be converted to produce a hydrogen rich gas.
Hydrogen is in great demand for use in fertilisers, chemical plants and food production.

Moreover, hydrogen is itself viewed as a future • clean’ replacement for hydrocarbon-based transport fuels, and most countries currently reliant on these fuels are investing heavily in hydrogen development programmes.

The novel process developed by Dr Valerie Dupont and her co-investigators in the University's Faculty of Engineering mixes glycerol with steam at a controlled temperature and pressure, separating the waste product into hydrogen, water and carbon dioxide, with no residues.

A special absorbent material filters out the carbon dioxide, which leaves a much purer product.

“Hydrogen has been identified as a key future fuel for low carbon energy systems such as power generation in fuel cells and as a transport fuel.

"Current production methods are expensive and unsustainable, using either increasingly scarce fossil fuel sources such as natural gas, or other less efficient methods such as water electrolysis.”

“Our process is a clean, renewable alternative to conventional methods.

"It produces something with high value from a low grade by-product for which there are few economical upgrading mechanisms” says Dr Dupont.

“In addition, it’s a near ‘carbon-neutral’ process, since the CO2 generated is not derived from the use of fossil fuels.”
Dr Dupont believes the process is easily scalable to industrial production, and, as the race towards the ‘hydrogen economy’(1) accelerates, could potentially be an economically important, sustainable “ and environmentally friendly •“ way of meeting the growing demand for hydrogen.

Dr Dupont" s research has been funded with a £270k grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under the Energy programme, and is in collaboration with Professors Yulong Ding and Mojtaba Ghadiri from the Institute of Particle Science and Engineering, and Professor Paul Williams from the Energy and Resources Research Institute at the University.

Industrial collaborators are Johnson Matthey and D1-Oils.

Biofuels scored big lately when Fields of Fuel wins audience award in the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and became the most talked about movie in the festival. This is a documentary in farming fuel and using biodiesel in lieu of the expensive and unhealthy oil. Although I haven’t seen the film itself, the trailer and the concept is really interesting to the point of views of both environmentalists and businessmen/eco-entrepreneurs.

Documentations include global warming, the evolution of engines (from Henry Ford and Rudolph Diesel), the dominance of cheap oil and its lingering effect on our environment, economy and health and the steps taken by concerned groups towards alleviating that effect.  President Bush was quoted saying America has been so addicted with oil and That addiction is synonymous to addiction to speed, gas guzzling muscle cars and SUV’s. The movie also marks the start of a revolution for cleaner fuel much like the 60’s swinging era. The movement is slowly gaining momentum and this is a great way to boost the pace of worldwide awareness and participation.

With the success of the film, comes the retrospection of how we are living the good life right now. Modern technology has eased our life and brought comfort and mobility to all of us. But as we look around, I hope we see the darker side of it. We have been so engrossed with the convenience of modern technology that we have forgotten or disregarded what it really brought us. We have been enjoying the comfort of air-conditioning and fail to remember how it was when we are all breathing clean and natural air. We have been enjoying the mobility of modern transportation that we have chosen not to see the pollution and environmental hazards that comes with it. We have been living a full life with all the technological advancement and yet we fail to see how we are slowly being enslaved to it. We have been reaping the fruits of these advancements that we have wantonly neglected the negative effects of it in our environment, our health and our children’s future.

As with every movement, there will always be resistance and resistance is great in this one. But in so doing and as we move along, what I beg for us to consider is that we put the best interest of all first before economics comes to play. For what use is a good economy if the people wont benefit from it. What good is money gained when death comes with the pursuit of it

President Kennedy said, “So, let us not be blind to our differences -- but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.”

We must start to make the difference we wish to see. We must start even if it seems small and insignificant for big things always comes from the accumulation of small things. We must lead the way to make the change until the leaders follow us. Clean and green technology is the best option to alleviate the growing environmental, health, economic and social concerns for these are all interconnected to each other. Biofuels are the best step towards our own security and independence because homeland security begins with homeland fuel.

Join the movement! Join us, be the change and live a better life!

- BIOENERGY FDC/MPC -