Partners for Affordable & Reliable Energy (PARE), a group that advocates for pro-consumer solutions to address energy needs, called on stakeholders to address the rampant issuance of red and yellow alerts throughout the country.
“The perennial lack of energy supply has an adverse impact on Filipinos across socio-economic classes. In particular, however, the poor are hit the hardest because their living standards will further deteriorate due to having no electricity in their households,” PARE chief advocate officer Nic Satur Jr. said in a statement.
“This is an important matter to address because the Philippines cannot achieve inclusive economic growth if it does not ensure safe, reliable, and affordable energy for all Filipinos,” Satur said.
PARE urged all stakeholders such as the Department of Energy, Energy Regulatory Commission, National Grid Corporation of the Philippines and other energy companies in the private sector to pursue policies such as expanding annual power generation in the Philippines to 7-8 terrawatts per hour (TWh) until 2026 and 8 to 9 TWh until 2030.
The underscored the need to increase power generation to 2,000 kilowatts per hour (kWh) per person by 2030, an increase from 1,025 kWh in 2022.
The group also pushed the introduction of nuclear energy in the energy mix, requiring National Grid Corp. of the Philippines to complete all delayed transmission projects as early as possible and banning the use of battery energy storage systems as contingency reserves due to their unreliability.
These policies were originally proposed by Bienvenido Oplas Jr., president of Minimal Government Thinkers.
“By implementing policies that are designed to achieve these goals, the Philippines can finally achieve sustainable and reliable energy for everyone — thus signaling the end of Red and Yellow Alerts,” Satur said.