Power

By K. Sabeel Rahman, April 14, 2016 The American social contract is collapsing. For many workers throughout the twentieth century, our economic policies created a basic bargain: individuals would work full-time jobs for large, established corporations, and in exchange would receive access to key benefits like healthcare, pensions, as well as pathways for upward mobility…

Disposable batteries are a costly way to buy power. Their days are numbered TIME was when a household torch used an incandescent bulb and gobbled disposable batteries. Now it is more likely to have a low-power LED (light-emitting diode) and a long-lasting rechargeable battery—or none at all: a flick of the wrist or a twist…

The more things change, the more they stay the same. More than 20 years after we found ourselves hobbled by acute electric power shortages, and after various policy and investment interventions, power remains among the foremost drags on the nation’s development. Meralco’s announced P4.15 per kilowatt-hour rate increase in early December last year raised a…

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has approved the maximum annual revenue of the country’s power transmission monopoly for the next five years. In a decision, the regulator approved the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ (NGCP) revenue requirement of P40.47 billion in 2011; P41.65 billion in 2012; P43.37 billion in 2013; P44.39 billion in 2014;…

MANILA, Philippines – The government faces a major setback in its efforts to privatize Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC)-Exploration Corp. after the board of the state-owned corporation failed to decide on the Department of Finance’s plan to sell the 10 percent participating interest of PNOC-EC in the Malampaya natural gas project.

WHILE the country’s green energy initiatives began taking off in 2009, earlier reforms in the sector risked unraveling that year. As local oil companies failed to reflect the sudden fall in world crude prices, the clamor for a revision of the Downstream Oil Deregulation Act of 1998 gained steam.

MANILA, Philippines – As the holiday season draws to a close, Filipinos now gear up for the upcoming national elections. But as government officials raised the possibility of a power shortage next year, will the 2010 polls be done in the dark?

MANILA, Philippines – Power plant owners are pushing for the full commercial operation of the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) to address the concern of power shortage in the future.

MANILA, Philippines – To further uphold the rights of consumers, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is proposing changes in some provisions in the Magna Carta for Residential Electricity Consumers.

CEBU, Philippines – Labor unions from at least 42 rural electric cooperatives and consumer groups have launched “Koop ko ‘To” movement which is aimed at advancing the interests of REC workers and consumers in the country.

MANILA, Philippines – The biggest organization of businessmen has urged President Arroyo to issue an executive order putting together a private-public Energy Program Commission (EPC) tasked to come out with an action program to solve two big problems in the energy sector – high electricity rates and a looming electric power shortage.

BIG industries will finally be able to choose their power supplier by the second quarter of next year under an interim open access program.

MANILA, Philippines – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Department of Energy (DOE) will hold today (Sept. 26) the first large-scale swap of incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent lamp (CFLs), signaling the gradual and voluntary phase-out of incandescent bulbs in the country.

MANILA, Philippines – A coalition yesterday expressed its “strongest opposition” to the looming approval of a loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that would facilitate the construction of a 200-megawatt, coal-fired power plant in Cebu.

Department of Energy (DOE) officials said the government will privatize the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) next year once a number of studies on the country’s first electricity spot market are completed.

State-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) said it targets to privatize the Limay combined cycle power plant in Bataan before the end of the month.

PHILIPPINE private power plant operators has asked Congress to look into the continued delay in the turnover of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) to the private sector.

A GROUP of private power-plant operators wants the government to let go of its control over the domestic spot market for electricity.

Local and foreign business groups are calling on Malacañang and lawmakers to prioritize the twin power bills pending before Congress to ensure its passage.

Several years ago, this senior legislator from Cagayan led a one-man campaign against the controversial  purchased power adjustment scheme in which end-users were unreasonably  made to shoulder even the cost of excess or unused power supplied by independent power producers.   The scrapping of the scheme to ease the burden on power consumers became his campaign…

The Senate approved Wednesday on second reading the amendment of the eight-year-old Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) “to ease the burden of power consumers, [eliminate] stranded-cost recovery and enhance competition among power industry players.”

Beijing: State Grid Corp. of China (SGCC) said it plans to infuse a proprietary technology in the country’s power grid to transform it into a model power transmission system for the region.

MANILA, Philippines — IF YOU CAN’T BUILD IT, why not save on it? A power plant, that is.

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines badly needs to build 5,000 megawatts of new electric power plants between now and next year so as to avert crippling power outages when the economy is expected to recover.

The country’s energy officials have confirmed the existence of a “severe” power supply lack in several parts of the archipelago, particularly in Central Visayas in the province of Cebu.