On July 20, 2017, I attended the 5^th Annual Power and Electricity Philippines Week at the Solaire Resort and Casino in Pasay City, Philippines.  I was interested in listening to the discussion on Renewable Energy sources, although I also wanted to listen to the presentations on the fossil fuel and coal for power generation, which still dominates energy generation in the Philippines. 

According to the Undersecretary of Planning (National Economic and Development Authority), Usec. Rolando Tungpalan, the Philippines is now moving towards the Golden Age of Infrastructure. The government has said many times over that it will ?Build, Build, Build?.  He said that government:

-        Will encourage investments in power generation

-        Accelerate and streamline business processes for energy projects

-        Revisit roles, particularly the government, in the power industry

-        Expedite implementation of remaining policy mechanisms under the Renewable Energy Act

-        Declare power projects as Projects of National Significance

One of the challenges of the power industry is the bottlenecks in government approvals of numerous permits and licenses and reluctance of local communities and indigenous peoples.  One way of managing this is with the Executive Order 30 which dictates that applications for permits should now be processed within 30 days.  Other strategies to help the Renewable Energy power industry includes accelerating privatization of remaining power plant assets and prioritizing provision of power to remaining un-electrified areas.

My uncle, Joey Leviste, moderated a session on the Philippine Energy Sector 2017 and Beyond. I learned about some issues like:

-        How there are a lot of stranded energy projects because the Philippine national grid cannot accommodate the energy that they are generating

-        We need to have a more intelligent and balanced Energy Mix on the local level, which means having the right mix of fossil fuel and renewable energy sources

-        I need to learn about how Renewable Energy can possibly provide baseload to energy requirements

-        There are still many islands in the Philippines that are isolated from the main grid

-        These are exciting times to be in the dynamic energy industry because the government is modifying and implementing rules that will be good for the industry

-        We should install solar farms in a more dispersed manner so we will have no problem with cloud cover

This was a great opportunity to learn about Renewable Energy and I do hope to be able to join again next year and see how far the power industry has progressed.