Local firms not keen on investing on RE

CEBU, Philippines — Despite the availability of options in using renewable energy to help the environment, local companies have yet to invest in this segment.

AboitizPower first vice president for energy trading and sales Juan Alejandro A. Aboitiz, said aside from multinational firms, which are mandated to use renewable energy source in their power consumption, only few among the local businesses opted to use power from renewable sources.

According to Aboitiz, while the awareness is there, what keeps the local firms from using renewable sources for their power consumption is the cost.

“Many companies are [still] not willing to pay the premium for renewable energy,” Aboitiz said although he explained that the demand is growing.

AboitizPower has its own renewable energy product branded as “Cleanergy. It is the company’s brand for clean and renewable energy.

AboitizPower sources its renewable power supply from its hydro, geothermal, and solar generation assets.

Thirty-two of AboitizPower’s 50 power plants in the country supply Cleanergy. Together with its partners, it has a capacity of 1,294 MW of Cleanergy as of end-2018.

As of last year, AboitizPower has 33 Cleanergy customers in the open access market.

Aboitiz said availing of cleaner or green power is easier now with industries’ option to enter the open access platform.

With Cleanergy, big load Open Access customers now have the power to choose and get their power supply entirely from RE through AboitizPower.

Electric cooperatives and distribution utilities also add Cleanergy to balance their supply mix between thermal and renewable energy.

Cleanergy is part of AboitizPower’s bigger balanced mix strategy – tapping available resources to meet the country’s energy trilemma of energy sufficiency, affordability, and sustainability.

The Philippines is among those developing economies that still struggle with the idea of abandoning fossil fuel sources to sustain economic growth.

Based on study conducted by international research group Climate Analytics, the Philippines’ continued use of fossil fuels, contributes to air pollution that could run to billions of pesos.

More importantly, the research group added that imports of fossil fuels were already at 3.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, at $11 billion in 2017.

By depending less on imported fuel sources and shifting to renewables, the Philippines could improve its energy self-sufficiency and reduce its supply-related risks. (FREEMAN)