In a recent joint meeting, the National Economic and Development Authority Investment Coordination Committee-Technical Board and Cabinet Committee endorsed to the NEDA Board for approval six projects costing some PhP17.4 billion.
The ICC-TB and CC approved the Philippine Energy Efficiency Project, which costs about P2.17 billion. The project aims to reduce government expenditure on electricity by 20 percent in pilot government buildings as well as average cost of production by electric cooperatives by 10 percent.
The project also intends to increase the cooperatives’ electric consumption by 10 percent from 2007 levels. About PhP1.58 billion funding for the Project will be sourced from a loan from Asian Development Bank (ADB), PhP67.5 million from the ADB Clean Energy Fund grant, and the remaining PhP517.5 million will come from the Department of Energy’s counterpart fund.
In the report submitted by Assistant Director-General and NEDA Infrastructure Staff Director Ruben Reinoso to the ICC, he said that the project will “reduce peak demand in ECs through consumer savings for each compact fluorescent lamp, reduce energy consumption in 42 pilot public buildings by five percent from 2007 and recover residual mercury from fluorescent lights within 24 months to prevent it from entering the food chain.”
Among the components of the project are the National Residential Lighting Program and the creation of the Super Energy Service Company. The lighting program involves the distribution of 13 million (13,14 and 15-watt) CFLs to residential and small commercial sectors that cover about 6.68 million households nationwide. The Super ESCO will be created as a subsidiary of the Philippine National Oil Company under the DOE.
Endorsed also was the Credit Line for Energy Efficiency and Climate Protection project in the Philippines proposed by the Land Bank of the Philippines. This is intended to support the initiatives, programs and projects that promote energy efficiency and climate protection. The credit line will be available to private sector companies and entities which are at least 70 percent Filipino-owned. Local government units, National Government Agencies, and Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations may also avail of credit as sub-borrowers.
Three transmission projects were likewise approved. These are the P6.13-billion Abaga-Kirahon-Maramag 230kV Power Transmission Project, the P1.63-billion General Santos-Tacurong 138kV Transmission Line Project, and the P1.27-billion Wright-Calbayog 138kV Transmission Line Project.
All three projects aim to ensure continuous supply of adequate power to the areas mentioned. The ICC also approved the PhP4.52 billion Project on Forestlands Management of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, which aims to rehabilitate degraded forestlands to uplift the socio-economic conditions of affected communities in three critical river basins, i.e., Upper Magat and Cagayan, Upper Pampanga and Jalaur River basin.
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