Electricity

Energy saving initiatives to alleviate the power supply situation in the summer of 2015 must be a coordinated effort of the government, consumers and private sector, instead of approaching the impending crisis to each his own, a government official said Tuesday.

If you listen to businessmen talking about expected power blackouts next year, you would start blaming Energy Secretary Ikot Petilla for aborting the economic takeoff. For many, Petilla need not emphasize the obvious but just quietly do what he must to alleviate the problem.

MANILA, Philippines – The government is open to proposals to convert the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) into a natural gas-powered facility to meet the country’s growing energy needs.

MANILA, Philippines – Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petillla will ask President Aquino to declare a state of emergency or crisis in the power sector to allow the government to tap additional power capacity next year.

BLACKOUT: Things that we taxpayers have to endure because pig heads in government presume to rule other people’s lives despite their incompetence…. Here I am in my parked car, on the fourth day of the Big Blackout, tapping out this Postscript on my mobile phone. My PC and all devices in the house have been…

BLACKOUT: Things that we taxpayers have to endure because pig heads in government presume to rule other people’s lives despite their incompetence…. Here I am in my parked car, on the fourth day of the Big Blackout, tapping out this Postscript on my mobile phone. My PC and all devices in the house have been…

(First of three parts) The cost of electricity in the Philippines is measured in many ways. For the consumers, the cost is measured in pesos per kilowatt-hours that appear in the monthly bills.

Over 6 months since Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), over a million households still await power restoration MANILA, Philippines – Over half a year since Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) battered the Philippines, President Benigno Aquino III said the Department of Energy (DOE) continues to work on restoring power in areas affected by the November storm.

MANILA – Business groups warned that the unstable regulatory environment risks stunting the power sector at a time when the economy has been flourishing.

The Makati Business Club (MBC) has echoed the call of other business groups pushing for proper implementation of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira), similarly advocating for changes within the regulatory framework without amending the said law.

MANILA, Philippines–Foreign and local business groups bucked proposals to amend the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira), or the Republic Act No. 9136, saying that proper implementation is the better answer to power industry issues.

MANILA, Philippines – Businesses are against amending the power reform law under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) or Republic Act 9136, the country’s business groups said in a position paper.

BUSINESS GROUPS yesterday rejected calls to amend the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA) to resolve the country’s energy woes, saying the government should instead focus on applying the law.

MANILA – Despite the “red alert” status over the Visayas, Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla sees no power interruptions for the whole day. Based on the website of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines said Visayas has zero reserves and with peak demand of 1,569 MW, and a supply of 1,498 MW, there is going…

A NEW OFFER CAP for the power traded at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) is expected to be adopted within the year, the Energy chief said during the weekend.

MANILA, Philippines – Business groups yesterday urged President Aquino to work on achieving power supply security and competitive power rates to allow the country to realize inclusive growth and industrialization.

The DOE said brownouts were still a possibility, depending on supply and condition of power plants MANILA, Philippines – Following rotating brownouts in some areas of Luzon last week, the Department of Energy (DOE) said the power situation should go back to normal, barring the unexpected shutdown of power plants.

REGULATORS have ordered the implementation of another temporary price cap for power traded at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), seeking to shelter consumers from volatility.

DAVAO CITY — Businesses in this city are losing an estimated P46 million daily from the six-hour rotational brownout currently applied by Davao Light and Power Co.

DAVAO CITY, Philippines—In what could be the clearest illustration of the absence of a steady nonpolluting source of electricity, or efforts to have one, this city and other parts of Davao del Norte would suffer power outages lasting four to six hours a day as a result of dams drying up in the summer heat.

MANILA, Philippines — (UPDATE 2 – 6:41 PM) The Supreme Court on Tuesday indefinitely extended the temporary restraining order it issued preventing Meralco from implementing a questioned P4.15-per-kilowatt-hour power rate hike. The high court voted 14-0 for the indefinite extension on the day the original TRO was supposed to expire. Also covered by the injunction…

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) warned that the power supply situation in the Philippines is now at a “critical stage” and called for a well- planned domestic strategy to avert the fast-approaching crisis.

We can never stress it enough. Tens of thousands of families lost everything when history’s fiercest Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda struck the Visayas last Nov. Among the worst displaced were schoolchildren, traumatized by the loss of kin, playmates, and school provisions.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Come on, ERC… when you guys blame the unusually high Meralco rate increases last December on market failure, you really mean regulatory failure. If you ERC guys were more alert in defense of the public interest, you would have seen market failure about to happen and would have taken steps to stop it from happening.

A GROUP of power generators welcomed last week’s ruling of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) which ordered the recalculation of the rates on the spot market.

MANILA, Philippines—A key political ally of President Aquino on Thursday blamed him and Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla for the country’s power supply woes, calling both officials “awful managers.”

MANILA, Philippines – Power industry regulators voided yesterday the sharp hikes in electricity rates in December 2013 and in January this year, saying “market failure” in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) had pushed rates by more than half of what was justified during the period.

HUNDREDS of thousands of residents in four Mindanao provinces continued to suffer from rolling blackouts over the weekend, but the Energy Department was still in the dark about the major systemwide outage that crippled almost the entire island on Feb. 27.

MANILA, Philippines – Mindanao will continue to experience two- to three-hour rotating blackouts because not all power plants are back online after the region suffered an island-wide power outage on Thursday, officials said yesterday.