* This is my column in BusinessWorld last March 22, 2019.
Continuing the Market-Oriented Reforms for Efficiency
(MORE) series in this column, we tackle the importance of more electricity
production in the development of Asia-Pacific economies.
On Tuesday, March 19, I attended the joint press
conference of the Department of Energy (DoE), the National Power Corporation
(Napocor), National Transmission Corporation (Transco), National Grid
Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), and Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) in
formally announcing the Philippines hosting of two big international energy
events.
First, the Association of the Electricity Supply Industry
of East Asia and Western Pacific (AESIEAP) in September 2019 in Shangrila
Mactan, Cebu; second, the Conference of Electric Power Supply Industry (CEPSI)
at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in November 2020.
During the open forum, I commented that the Philippines
holding these two big energy events that are technology-neutral on energy
sources is important, to contrast with the renewable energy (RE) favoritism of
the Asian Development Bank’s Asia Clean Energy Forum (ACEF). The latter is an
annual event glamorizing the role of wind-solar and other renewables while
implicitly demonizing the role of fossil fuels in energy development in Asia.
Their delegates, speakers, and sponsors fly from all over the world on fossil
fuel then directly or indirectly lambast fossil fuel and talk of a
“decarbonized world” via RE favoritism and cronyism.
Having a technology-neutral energy policy is important
for fast economic growth and expansion of Asian economies. For instance,
despite the decades-long lobby to glamorize and subsidize wind-solar and other
renewables, fossil fuels provided 74% of total electricity generation in
Asia-Pacific in 2017, with many countries being more than 80% fossil
fuels-dependent — India, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, etc.
(see table 1).
Other AESIEAP members with low electricity generation are
Cambodia, Laos, Macau, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka. Hong Kong is
also a member; its reported domestic electricity production is small because
mainland China supplies the rest.
High power generation coincides or correlates with high
economic expansion. The numbers are shown below spanning 30 years from 1987 to
2017. High correlation is shown in some countries like S. Korea, Indonesia,
Malaysia, India, Taiwan, Thailand, and Bangladesh (see table 2).
As shown in table 1, the Philippines still has small
power generation despite its huge population of 108 million (two times that of
S. Korea, four times that of Australia). We need more investments in the sector
— in generation, transmission, distribution, and supply.
Energy efficiency as “substitute” for more power
generation is not enough. If one will drive at night in many provinces, one
will notice that national and provincial roads are dark and conducive to
accidents, except in some city centers.
In many instances, government taxes, permits and
bureaucracies, plus occasional price control (like the Wholesale Electricity
Spot Market price cap), are among the hindrances to more energy development.
Government should learn to step back on these.
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See also:
BWorld 302, Energy favoritism by legislation, March 21, 2019
BWorld 303, Water surplus vs water shortage, March 22, 2019
BWorld 304, MORE tax relief in CIT, March 23, 2019
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