The Department of Energy (DOE) has issued an order creating the Inter-Agency Energy Efficiency and Conservation Committee (IAEECC) that will facilitate the grant of incentives to qualified programs under the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act.
Under thatlaw, qualified energy efficiency projects can be granted fiscal and non-fiscal incentives in the form of tax and duty exemptions, recognitions and technological assistance.
Projects that will be qualified are those that will be approved by the IAEECC to result in lower operating costs especially for state owned and leased buildings as well as operating facilities.
Department Order No. 2020-01-0001 dated January 9 said members of the committee will include representatives from the departments of Budget and Management, Finance, Trade and Industry, Transportation, Science and Technology, Interior and Local Government and Public Works and Highways and the National Economic Development Authority.
The IAEECC is tasked to prepare an annual assessment of opportunities for energy cost reduction to those qualified to get incentives.
It is also mandated to develop and study existing and emerging energy conservation technologies to produce guidelines.
Meanwhile, the DOE, as the committee’s leader, will be mainly responsible for the planning, formulation, development, implementation, enforcement and monitoring of management policies and other relater energy efficiency and conservations plans and programs.
The passage of Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act in April 2019 was highly lauded by several sectors especially the Philippine Energy Efficiency Alliance, citing that it will help the country in absorbing spikes in electricity and oil prices as it can defer new capital expenditure requirements for energy infrastructure capacity upgrades from generation, transmission and distribution apart from reducing dependence on imported fuel.
The group’s president, Alexander Ablaza, said if the Philippines would only invest in a $243 billion investment for energy efficiency through 2040, the country would benefit from savings of as much as $726 billion; deference of as 45,900 megawatts worth of new power plants; apart from reduced carbon emissions and slower rise in power prices.
