Interesting debate

There has been so much interest generated by a bill filed in the House of Representatives last August proposing to grant a company called Solar Para sa Bayan Corp., a franchise to operate nationwide.

The company, though new, is said to be already bringing round-the-clock electricity services to 12 towns across the country, benefitting 200,000 Filipinos.

The bill, introduced by House Deputy Speaker Rep. Arthur Yap, seeks to grant a franchise to construct, install, establish, operate, and maintain distributable power technologies and minigrid systems to provide electric power, in particular solar energy, to customers and end-users throughout the Philippines, to the company, which is a subsidiary of Solar Philippines.

Company president Leandro Leviste said they aim to bring cheap, clean, and reliable electricity to as much as 500,000 Filipinos this year in Mindoro, Palawan, Masbate, Batangas, Quezon, Aurora, Cagayan, Isabela, Panay, Negros, Misamis, Davao, and other areas.

There are those who say that the bill, if passed into law, will create a super monopoly, covering the entire electric power value chain (from generation to distribution), that it violates the EPIRA law which already provides a way by which interested private companies could participate in the government’s electrification program in remote areas, and that it excludes the company from the regulatory powers of the Energy Regulatory Commission, among others.

Among those opposing the bill are the members of the Philippine Solar and Storage Energy Alliance, the Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association Inc., Confederation of Solar Developers in the Philippines, and the Renewable Energy Association of the Philippines.

But a survey conducted by Pulse Asia in June has shown that 82 percent of Filipinos want new options for electric service providers. It showed that 60 percent of Filipinos are dissatisfied with electric prices, while 89 percent want increased use of renewable energy.

Reports say that over 100,000 Filipinos have signed a petition in support of the passage of the bill. Among those in support are the National Association of Electric Consumers for Reforms (Nasecore) which said that the bill offers Filipinos an alternative choice for electricity and would pave the way for more competition in the power industry.

The Palueños Solar Power Electric Consumers Association, meanwhile, said that it would unlock development potential in off-grid areas.

Over 20 municipalities across the Philippines have already passed resolutions in support of Solar Para Sa Bayan’s projects, after having conducted public consultations in provinces across the country.

Leviste has said that the text of the bill speaks for itself - it is non-exclusive and even encourages others to apply for the same; it aims to end existing monopolies on electricity; it incurs zero cost to government and eliminates the need for billions in subsidies to existing utilities.

It is also maintained that the bill does not violate EPIRA and is consistent with the law when it mandates SPSB to prove least cost of power and to be subject to regulation and ERC rates.

According to Energy Regulatory Commission executive director Corazon Gines, they are supporting the bill since new technologies will fasttrack total electrification.

Supporters also insist that the bill does not violate the existing franchises of distribution utilities and electric cooperatives which are also non-exclusive, that it does not violate EPIRA’s policy of unbundling generation, transmission and distribution since minigrids are a distinct new technology not previously contemplated by the law, that the bill instructs SPSB to provide the least cost, and that the proposed franchise cannot be sold to third parties, among others.

Cheap, clean, and reliable electricity is always good. Especially now that the prices of almost every basic commodity and service are increasing.

School of thought

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources, also in August, issued an administrative order which had the country’s mining industry baffled as to where government’s policy is headed.

Administrative order No. 2018-19, according to the DENR, was issued to provide new environmental policies to ensure sustainable environment conditions at every stage of the mining operation and minimize the disturbed area of a mining project at any given time.

According to an industry source, the said DAO should have considered that school of thought that the mining of two main metallic mineral deposits in the Philippines is dependent on the kind of kind of mineral deposit and its locations.

He was referring to nickel and copper. The former is normally found near the surface, while the latter can be found either near the surface or deeper below the surface.

While nickel can be found near the surface, it uses strip mining as a method of extracting ores and not open pit mining which is being used in copper mining.

The order states that nickel mines can limit their maximum disturbed areas because the location and characteristics of their ore body allow for movement of operations from one disturbed area to another, unlike large-scale copper and gold mines.

Large-scale copper mines cannot feasibly limit their operations to 50-100 hectares as required by the DAO due to the location and characteristics of their ore body apart from the fact that it carries a huge capital investment.

As such copper mines cannot feasibly transfer their disturbed area until the entire mineral deposits have been extracted since it would violate the DAO.

That cannot be realistic and will only penalize large-scale copper mining operations, according to the source.

The industry, particularly the ones involved in copper mining, claims that the safest, most environmentally-compliant, and most economical way of extraction is still surface mining using bench-cut technique through compliant open pit that it claims to be the only feasible and safest method of extracting copper found near the surface.

Since it is more visually transparent than underground mining, it is by far safer and less prone to accidents and subsidence.

Also, compliant open pit mining reduces the complexity, risks, and hazards of mining, thus, it is less expensive than underground mining.

The amount of copper a country consumes is a key indicator of its economic health. The industry itself brings in multi-million dollar foreign investments just like gold mining, apart from the jobs that it creates and the sustainable community it maintains.

Copper is part of our everyday life as it is used for electricity, transportation including electric vehicles, and telecommunications, among others. ??

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