Clear energy mix policy sought

Business leaders have called on the next administration to set a “clear” energy mix policy to guide investors on what energy and power infrastructure would best support the country’s economic growth.

In a forum hosted jointly by the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (Ejap) and ING Bank, Phinma Corp. president and CEO Ramon Del Rosario said it was important for the government to adopt an energy strategy that would include the energy mix that they would like to promote.

“But when they decide that there’s a certain amount of clean energy they want to push, the reality of it is that those investment will take place only if there is significant support from government in terms of incentives like FIT (Feed-in-Tariff), or a certain degree of subsidy,” Del Rosario said.

DMCI Holdings Inc. chair and president Isidro A. Consunji said that deregulation worked for the energy industry and the government must set what the future direction was going to be. While coal-fired power plants were needed for stable 24/7 output, he said there were also investments in renewable energy (RE) and other fuel types. The whole energy pie, so to speak, could grow further if the government would set signals on what technologies it would support, he said.

The business community has made it very clear that as far as the energy side was concerned, the Philippines needed quality power supply at competitive rates, European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) vice president Henry Schumacher told reporters on the sidelines of the forum.

“And we need a clear vision on what the mix is going to be: How much for renewables, how much natural gas? For natural gas, we have six power plants that need to be fed so do we have a policy on liquefied natural gas (LNG) and so on? And how much coal do we need for baseload?” Schumacher asked.

The Department of Energy (DOE) had often said it was encouraging “balanced” energy investments that would result in coal-fired power plants supplying 30 percent of the country, RE contributing another 30 percent, LNG another 30 percent and the rest by other technologies. However, no DOE secretary has set a firm energy mix policy or expressed categorically how much of each technology would be accommodated for future built-outs through the granting of permits or incentives.