Coal for energy security, infrastructure for energy resilience

Last Friday, Oct. 10, I attended the press conference of the Department of Energy (DoE) with Secretary Sharon S. Garin and several DoE undersecretaries speaking. Many topics were covered — from the planned expansion of waste-to-energy, the expansion of use of electric vehicles, power restoration in storm-ravaged Masbate, and the damage to the power supply from the 6.9-magnitude earthquake in Cebu province. And as the press conference was ongoing, another earthquake, this one with a magnitude of 7.4, hit the Davao region. The power situation was monitored there in real time.

- BIENVENIDO S. OPLAS, JR.

I saw the efforts and hard work of the people in the DoE in trying to restore power as soon as possible by coordinating with the concerned institutions, both public and private, like the generation companies, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), the distribution utilities and electric cooperatives, and then informing the public of their actions. Thank you, DoE, for your service.

On Oct. 6 the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) released the September composite prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) for the October billing. It was only P3.04/kilowatt hour (kWh), and in Luzon in particular, it was only P2.57/kWh. But low WESM prices do not mean low electricity prices because there is an adjustment for the price differential between the feed-in tariff-eligible renewable energy (RE) at a high price vs the low WESM prices. The lower the WESM prices, the higher the feed-in tariff or FIT allowance will be in our monthly electricity bill.

I notice and applaud the round-the-clock updates from the NGCP, made during the prolonged monsoon rains (