Energy Columns in PhilStar

Hydrocarbons, pumped storage hydro and economic growth   ENERGY, INFRA AND ECONOMICS - Bienvenido Oplas Jr. - The Philippine Star  June 26, 2025 | 12:00am https://www.philstar.com/business/2025/06/26/2453279/hydrocarbons-pumped-storage-hydro-and-economic-growth   There are a number of good developments in the Philippine energy sector recently. Consider these reports in The Philippine STAR written by Brix Lelis:  “DOE: Drilling operations begin at Malampaya field” (June 21); “Meralco, Gokongweis expand power supply deal” (June 24); “MGen inks supply deals with D&L unit” (June 25); “DOE seeking Chinese expertise on battery storage facilities” (June 25); “‘Philippines, Tiger Cub economies to ignite global oil demand’” (June 25).   We need more hydrocarbons, oil and gas energy to power the Philippines’ high growth trajectory. The number of vehicles especially large trucks and buses that transport heavy loads and millions of passengers will need more oil. Th...

Energy security during rainy, stormy months   ENERGY, INFRA AND ECONOMICS - Bienvenido Oplas Jr. - The Philippine Star  June 19, 2025 | 12:00am https://www.philstar.com/business/2025/06/19/2451539/energy-security-during-rainy-stormy-months   Two weeks ago the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) declared the official rainy season for the country, normally June to November.   Rainy season means higher output for hydroelectric plants but lower output for solar plants as solar hates shade from clouds, rains and trees. Like last year, the share of hydro in total power generation rose from 3.3 percent in May to 5.4 percent in June 2024, while solar share declined from 3.5 percent in May to 3.2 percent in June. The share of wind also declined from 0.6 percent in May to 0.3 percent in June. For a combined share of 3.5 percent of total generation from wind-solar, they are dangerously unreliable to power the Philippines’ fast e...

Nuclear energy and DOE navigator   ENERGY, INFRA AND ECONOMICS - Bienvenido Oplas Jr. - The Philippine Star  June 5, 2025 | 12:00am https://www.philstar.com/business/2025/06/05/2448216/nuclear-energy-and-doe-navigator   Energy is development. All countries and economies that have developed fast have abundant energy supply to power and sustain their household and industrial needs. Nuclear energy has been used by many industrialized countries since the 60s or earlier as part of their energy mix. In 1966 or six decades ago, these countries already have at least 200 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of power generation from nuclear alone: France, Germany, Russia, Canada, Japan. With huge nuclear generation already that year were Italy with 3,900, US with 5,800 and UK with 20,800 GWh.   In Asia in 1977, these countries have at least 100 GWh power generation from nuclear alone: Taiwan, South Korea, Pakistan, India; Japan has 31,700 GWh from nuclear that year.   In 1985 when the Ba...

Corporate rationality and NGOs irrationality in electricity pricing   ENERGY, INFRA AND ECONOMICS - Bienvenido Oplas Jr. - The Philippine Star  April 17, 2025 | 12:00am https://www.philstar.com/business/2025/04/17/2436532/corporate-rationality-and-ngos-irrationality-electricity-pricing   Last week and this week, there were a number of important developments in the Philippine electricity sector.   On April 10, Power for People Coalition (P4P) released a statement titled, “ERC nod on Meralco power deal slammed, looming power monopoly questioned.”     On April 11, Meralco announced an upward adjustment of P0.723/kWh in the April electricity rate, the overall rate at P13.013/kWh this month from P12.290/kWh last March.   Also on April 11, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) acted quickly and certified the Panay Energy Development Corp. (PEDC) Unit 3 for regulating reserve. Possibly after they read this column the day before where PEDC 3 was me...

Declining global energy prices and Philippines electricity pricing   ENERGY, INFRA AND ECONOMICS - Bienvenido Oplas Jr. - The Philippine Star  April 10, 2025 | 12:00am https://www.philstar.com/business/2025/04/10/2434754/declining-global-energy-prices-and-philippines-electricity-pricing   Among the unintentional results of the ongoing tariff war between the US and China plus other countries is low global energy prices. World oil, gas and coal prices have been declining since late 2024 but prices further dipped this week.   Main reason is that many companies expect global growth slowdown this year and demand for energy is expected to decline while supply will rise, if not stabilize, at high level, like Trump’s drill-baby-drill policy. So there is little need to stockpile hydrocarbons and coal. And prices fall further.   Declining global energy prices   Here are the prices in the first week of April in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 (April 7), respectively:   WT...

China electricity and transport modernization   ENERGY, INFRA AND ECONOMICS - Bienvenido Oplas Jr. - The Philippine Star  April 3, 2025 | 12:00am https://www.philstar.com/business/2025/04/03/2433009/china-electricity-and-transport-modernization   BEIJING – Bright roads and buildings, extensive subway trains covering 880 kilometers in this city alone, high-speed rail covering 45,000 kilometers across the country and a rising number of electric vehicles (EVs) from e-bikes to cars and buses. This is my first time here and I am amazed by these sights of China.   Those trains and EVs run on electricity and China has the largest power generation in the world with 9,456 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2023. That was double the US’ 4,494 TWh, nine times Japan’s 1,013 TWh, 18 times Germany’s 514 TWh, 33 times the UK’s 286 TWh and 79 times the Philippines’ 119 TWh. The Philippines’ total power generation in 2023 was equivalent to only five days of China generation.   I am here to...

Net growth via more coal power   ENERGY, INFRA AND ECONOMICS - Bienvenido Oplas Jr. - The Philippine Star  March 27, 2025 | 12:00am https://www.philstar.com/business/2025/03/27/2431274/net-growth-more-coal-power   From December 2024 up to this month, many big global banks have left and abandoned the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) formed in 2021. They realized that they are not optimizing their resources entrusted to them by their investors. So far these are the big banks that left the NZBA.   Six from the US: Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo.   Six from Canada: Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, Scotia Bank and Toronto Dominion Bank.   Three from Japan: Mitsubishi UFJ, Nomura and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. And one from Australia, Macquarie.   The world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, also abandoned NZBA sister group, th...

From energy regulation to deregulation (Part 3)   ENERGY, INFRA AND ECONOMICS - Bienvenido Oplas Jr. - The Philippine Star  March 20, 2025 | 12:00am https://www.philstar.com/business/2025/03/20/2429601/energy-regulation-deregulation-part-3   This is a continuation of the previous articles this year in this column , “From energy regulation to deregulation” Part 1 (Jan. 25) and Part 2 (Feb. 6). In Part 1, the three regulations I discussed were price control via the secondary price cap in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, high reliability standards and fines, and price regulation after competitive selection process (CSP) has been done.   In Part 2 I discussed a dangerous regulation of “benchmarking rates” not only for transmission and distribution but also for procurement of necessary power supply for distribution utilities (DUs) and ancillary services (AS), explained five reasons why the policy is wrong.   In Part 3 I will tackle prolonged regulation by the E...

Meralco finance and GDP congruence, energy regulation incongruence   ENERGY, INFRA AND ECONOMICS - Bienvenido Oplas Jr. - The Philippine Star  February 27, 2025 | 12:00am https://www.philstar.com/business/2025/02/27/2424408/meralco-finance-and-gdp-congruence-energy-regulation-incongruence   Last Monday, Feb. 24 , I attended the 2024 Meralco Financials Operating Results: Media Briefing held at Grand Hyatt in BGC, Taguig City. Top officers of the company were there led by chairman and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan or MVP, EVP and COO Ronnie Aperocho, SVP and chief finance officer Betty Siy-Yap, SVP and chief revenue officer Ferdinand Geluz, SVP and head of Regulatory Management Office Jose Ronald Valles, FVP and head of Networks Froilan Savet, Meralco Power Gen (MGen) president and CEO Emmanuel Rubio, others. Moderator was the always-smiling communications expert Joe Zaldariaga, the company’s VP and head of Corporate Communications.   STAR energy reporter Brix Lelis was als...