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Can one ever get used to power outages? When a brownout does occur, and they are becoming frequent nowadays, protests and frustrations reverberate in the air. Environmental advocates pushing for cleaner energy are not immune from the sneering attacks, as if the duty to ensure a stable energy supply rests upon their shoulders.
Thanks to the patient, accepting but suffering Filipino folks, government seems to be spared the blame. Have we have become used to inefficiency and apparent lack of coordination among government agencies? Have we not learned from the power crisis that hit Metro Manila in the 1990s where work productivity was badly affected? The crisis was used as a basis to resort to a controversial contract with independent power producers where Filipinos even paid (and are still paying?) for excess supply of energy.
Before a local government unit issues a business permit, does it even look into the company’s potential impact on the energy supply and coordinate with the agency that looks into the energy situation in the area? Considering that power requirements are supplied mostly from coal and oil, is the impact on public health and safety and contribution to climate change even looked into?
While the Department of Energy was mandated to ensure an ecologically sustainable, reliable and indigenous power, polluting and greenhouse producing fossil fuels still hold the biggest share of the energy mix, despite climate change and despite the Philippines being the second biggest geothermal power in the world and the wind mapping result which strongly indicate the country’s huge wind potential.
It is high time for the consumers to be given the choice, whether to stick to carbon-emitting energy source or go for clean energy service providers, like what is being done in the United Kingdom and other European Union countries. The much-needed political will of the next President, who should understand the grave climate crisis that is putting the planet in peril, should make this a looming reality.
Although still 10 months into office, US President Barack Obama is already pushing for a definite shift towards a clean energy economy. The stimulus package, called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, is meant to provide stimulus to the economy, provide funding for, among others, clean energy, including smart grid technology.
President Obama was in Florida recently to inaugurate the largest solar facility of the United States, at the DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center in Arcadia, Florida and to push the use of smart grid technology.
Smart grid technology “integrates 21st century technology with 20th century power grid. (www.ecoimagination.com). A smart grid “delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using digital technology to control appliances at consumer's homes to save energy, reduce cost and increase reliability and transparency. Such a modernized electricity network is being promoted by many governments as a way of addressing energy independence, global warming and emergency resilience issues.(Wikipedia)
These smart grids use “sensors, meters, digital controls and analytic tools to automate, monitor and control the two-way flow of energy across operations—from power plant to plug. A power company can optimize grid performance, prevent outages, restore outages faster and allow consumers to manage energy usage right down to the individual networked appliance.” (www.ibm.com.)
To borrow the words of President Obama, the old electric grid “wastes too much energy, it costs us too much money, and it's too susceptible to outages and blackouts.”
President Obama believes building a clean energy superhighway can take the “renewable power generated in places like DeSoto and deliver it directly to the American people in the most affordable and efficient way possible. Such an investment won't just create new pathways for energy -- it's expected to create tens of thousands of new jobs all across America in areas ranging from manufacturing and construction to IT and the installation of new equipment in homes and in businesses. It's expected to save consumers more than $20 billion over the next decade on their utility bills.”
Will shifting to clean energy harm the economy, as some quarters are mouthing?
Obama has this to say:
“The creation of a clean energy economy has to be made as swiftly and carefully as possible, to ensure that what it takes to grow this economy in the short, medium, and long term is no longer delayed…the growth of clean energy can lead to the growth of our economy.
… The closer we get to this new energy future, the harder the opposition is going to fight, the more we're going to hear from special interests and lobbyists in Washington whose interests are contrary to the interests of the American people. Now, there are those who are also going to suggest that moving towards a clean energy future is going to somehow harm the economy or lead to fewer jobs. And they're going to argue that we should do nothing, stand pat, do less, or delay action yet again.
It's a debate between looking backwards and looking forward; between those who are ready to seize the future and those who are afraid of the future... We know that we've always been a people who were unafraid to reach for that more promising future…” (http://www.energy.gov/)
Is it too much to hope that Filipinos, and the leaders elected in 2010, will be equally ready and unafraid to face the new clean energy future?
It is time to be bold and proactive in our sustainable energy quest. Brown out and black out can and should be things of the past…
