THE Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) has laid out proposals to bring down power costs in the country, such as the efficient distribution of power across the nation and reducing bureaucracy for would-be investors in the energy sector.
PCCI President George T. Barcelon said the government should focus on addressing the issue of supply.
“I think there’s a mismatch on the supply and demand in such a way that [in] the Mindanao area, the baseload power generation is higher than demand,” Barcelon said at a media briefing on Thursday.
The PCCI chief cited a need to improve the grid system so that whenever there’s an excess in the baseload generation, it can be shared with other regions across the country.
Barcelon also stressed there are “certain areas” in the (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) Epira law that must be tweaked.
“There are some gray areas wherein the law states clearly if you are paid for power generation, you cannot be a distributor. But there are some gray areas on that,” he added.
The PCCI head underscored the need to look into the efficiency behind the distribution of power in the country.
According to Barcelon, another pain point that requires attention from the government which could be solved in the near-term is the reduction of bureaucratic processes, which could help new companies investing in the energy sector. As it is, getting permits is “quite challenging,” he said.
“I think as of late…before, they used to say about 50 or 60 permits. There’s been a lot of improvements, but it’s still at 30 now…
So they cut it in half, but there is still a lot of paperwork to be done,” the PCCI head said.
In the regional landscape, Barcelon highlighted “the concern that our power cost is quite high compared to other Asean nations…but people in the distributing business somehow are making very good in their investment.”
“We need the power, we need to attract investors, we need them (investors) to receive fair earnings on their investment. But on the other side, we need to be competitive,” the PCCI chief stressed.
Nuclear power
Meanwhile, Barcelon said that as a long-term solution to the high power costs in the country, “definitely I think nuclear power must be on the table,” despite this solution requiring careful study.
“It was the cleanest energy that the country could have. So that, I think, should be on the table in the long term,” Barcelon noted.
In June 2023, Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual said renewable energy (RE) projects, particularly on power generation, are seen to account for a third of the Board of Investments (BOI) P1.5-trillion investments approval target for 2023.
The country has allowed 100-percent foreign investments in renewable energy in its bid to attain a 35-percent share of renewable energy in the country’s energy mix by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040.
‘Good distribution, cutting red tape to cut power cost’
Source: News Paper Radio
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