Electricity

Contrary to past expectations, Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras on Monday said that Luzon will begin experiencing energy shortages as early as next year.

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Employers here may have to start laying off workers to avoid or stem losses, if the power situation in Mindanao does not improve.

Power network operator National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said it is capable of transmitting sufficient power to the Mindanao grid and the power hitch in the region is a result of a nagging supply shortfall rather than a transmission problem.

MANILA, Philippines – There is no need to declare a state of emergency in Mindanao due to a recurring power crisis, Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said.

WITH no near-term solution in sight, Mindanao’s power shortfall has triggered finger pointing among industry players, with the government blaming the crisis on the private operator of the country’s electricity grid, which in turn held responsible the owner of a number of power plants in the region. In a press conference on Friday, Department of…

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Most parts of Mindanao are still experiencing eight to 12 hours of daily power outages even if the dry spell brought about by the El Niño phenomenon during the first half of the year has already ended.

MANILA, Philippines – A neophyte congressman filed yesterday a bill that seeks to reduce the cost of electricity by stopping the practice of power distributors of billing customers for electricity that is stolen or lost in their distribution lines.

NEW YORK, United States—Swaths of the world inhabit a modern dark age, with lack of electricity and modern cooking facilities condemning billions to deep poverty, the top United Nations energy body said Tuesday.

MANILA, Philippines – Power utility giant Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has overcharged its customers by P14.2 billion in a span of five-and-a-half years, according to a consumer advocacy group.

“Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras was given a bum steer,” said Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone after Almendras made an “erroneous” presentation the other day at the committee on appropriations that 100 percent of all barangays in the Visayas are already energized.

MANILA, Philippines—The energy chief has himself admitted that he was in the dark about the actual extent of the government’s electrification program.

MANILA, Philippines—The 30,000 sitios all over the country groping in the dark cannot expect light soon after Malacañang thumbed down the proposed P2 billion electrification project of the National Electrification Administration (NEA).

ZAMBOANGA CITY: The Department of Energy (DOE) has resumed the Philippine Energy Efficiency Project or PEEP which aims to eliminate the use of incandescent bulbs and switch to compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) as part of its National Residential Lighting Program. As many as 68 million incandescent bulbs are believed being used in the country today,…

CEBU/TACLOBAN — Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras has tasked all agencies under the Department of Energy to help come up with an interim structure that will address the concerns of electric cooperatives in the Visayas and encourage them to participate in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).

Aroutine check into why the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) has been filing petitions for power rate increases with reckless abandon led former colleague and now Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone into a closet full of skeletons.

Three months ago when I visited Zamboanga del Sur the province was suffering from frequent and prolonged brownouts brought about by the dry spell. Rain has since fallen in sufficient volumes to bring up the level of water of Lake Lanao, the biggest source of electric power in Mindanao. The power crisis that crippled Mindanao…

THE sale of the 982.1-megawatt Agus and Pulangi hydropower complex might not push through as originally envisioned in the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira), as the Department of Energy (DOE) is looking to use the power plant to balance the interests of consumers and potential investors in Mindanao’s power-generation sector.

MANILA, Philippines – Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said the sale of the 982.1 megawatt Agus-Pulangi complex in Mindanao would likely be scrapped.

I suspected as much a long time ago. The boys of former President Arroyo at Napocor/PSALM were sabotaging the implementation of Epira. And then, the Arroyo allies in the House led by Mikey are blaming the high electricity prices on Epira’s failure. They wanted to amend a law that had not been given a chance…

The following are the latest comparative power rates in Asia, culled by the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms (Nasecore) in US$/kWh terms, which we presented in our recent Global News Network (GNN) program on the subject, “Meralco Caught Overcharging Again:”

“ACCESS [to electricity] is not just the ability to connect or access to service itself, as it also includes a pricing context. It is not accessible if it is too expensive.”

Almost half of the P470.9 billion stranded costs of the cash-strapped National Power Corp. (Napocor) are allegedly fat bonuses, overtime pay and hefty consultancy fees of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm), which are all passed on to consumers by way of higher electricity bills.

P298M goes to PSALM Power consumers are shouldering about P297.8 million spent for fat bonuses, overtime pay and consultancy fees of state-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), Sen. Ralph Recto charged on Tuesday. “These were among the reasons why power rates have never gone down nine years after Epira [Electric Power Industry…

MANILA, Philippines—A senator is seeking a congressional inquiry into the series of power rate hikes in the country allegedly due to, among other things, the inclusion of fat bonuses, overtime pay and consultant fees of top executives and employees of the state-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Corp (PSALM) into the stranded debts of the…

AFTER nine years of selling its power plants to settle debts, it’s back to square one for National Power Corp. (Napocor), as the current liabilities of the state-owned company remained as they were in 2001.

CONSUMERS MAY have to brace themselves for higher electricity prices as the government wants to start reflecting the “true costs” of power, given the bulk of pending applications for rate increases.

MANILA, Philippines—With the world experiencing the ill effects of climate change, the Philippines urged its co-members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to “climate-proof” the region’s energy sector.

MANILA, Philippines – Coal-fired power plants remain the dominant source of electricity in the country, latest data from the Department of Energy (DOE) showed.

THIS SUMMER was unusually hot, with temperatures soaring to record highs. What was even more unusual was the way power bills shot through the roof, particularly in April. For the first time, many customers of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) saw their bill for the month double, even at around the same level of consumption as…

COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS are surprised to learn that my family of five pays less than P2,000 a month for electricity.