The Department of Energy (DOE) is looking at shifting to hybrid systems to provide long-term solutions to the country’s energy problems DOE Secretary Raphael Perpetuo Lotilla said: “The long-term solution… is really to shift to hybrid systems.”
“We must end this overdependence on petroleum and petroleum-based fuels because otherwise we will always experience the volatilities in prices and, therefore, it means we would have to invest in solar, in wind, and as you mentioned even newer technologies,” Lotilla, quoted in a GMA News report, said.
Lotilla, speaking at a briefing with the Senate energy committee, also said: “Hopefully, down the road, ocean, thermal, hydrogen, offshore wind, these are the things that we need to invest in so that our people don’t have to depend on petroleum-based fuels.”
However, Lotilla said this could not happen in a short period of time, but it should start immediately, especially now that the cost of renewables is declining, GMA News reported.
Lotilla, in the same report, also said he is inclined to discuss reforms in the energy sector with Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno and Budget Secretary Amenah Pangadaman, who are both sitting as board members of the National Power Corporation and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM).
Lotilla also said he’s already “having nightmares on power outages during the coming summer months.”
“But the summer months, I have to tell you, I’m beginning to have also not only nightmares but concerns about that (brownouts),” Lotilla told a Senate committee hearing.
Senate energy committee chair Raffy Tulfo earlier filed a resolution seeking an inquiry into the “persistent and recurring” power outages and rotational blackouts plaguing several parts of the country in the past two years, including Mindoro, which he described as the “most disturbing” case among all regions suffering from power outages.
The consumer group Power for People Coalition (P4P) on Wednesday meanwhile welcomed the DOE move to ditch energy importation and shift to relying on local power sources.
Lotilla earlier said the government will “develop measures to reduce the Philippines’ dependence on power resources from other countries.”
At present, 56.8 percent of the country’s total energy supply is imported compared to just 43 percent domestic or indigenous sources, Lotilla added.