What Am I About? Why Am I Here? What Is My Mission?
I have a strongly held belief that bulk power supply joint action on behalf of the Philippine electric cooperatives (ECs) will transform the EC sector. Executed diligently, it has the potential to lead the way forward out of a morass of power supply problems we’ve been encountering since the early 1990s. It has been enabled by EPIRA.
Roughly 70% of the revenue ECs collect is for power supply. It’s doesn’t take the aggregation of very many ECs before you have a power supply entity on the order of P50 P5 billion revenue per year and much larger. That’s a large business. It’s leaves a footprint in the market place. It’s wields market power. It can certainly influence the direction our future power supply will take.
This is influence the ECs have never really had before in our history.
The future of Philippine generation supply will be determined by a partnership among such EC entities, the DOE, and the ERC. The IPPs will come and go and will influence the process too, but they are not in a position to lead us. It will be the large power procurers (the EC power supply entities and Meralco, primarily) in partnership with DOE and ERC that will define our future.
Earlier this year, NRECA International, many of who’s senior executives have long shared a similar idea, provided enough funding to me to be able to spend the most part of several months working and talking and thinking about the specific issues related to this vision and how it might be executed within the Philippine situation. The results were delivered in a report to NRECA and many of those conceptual findings will begin seeing their way into general circulation within the sector, through my own releases of White Papers and presentations and coffee shop discussions.
So if you want to stay abreast of the discussions I’ll be releasing, subscribe.
My work is now not funded – but it doesn’t stop. I’m freely giving away whatever thoughts and ideas I have, but it takes a community of us working on this, exchanging ideas and concerns. Almost every time I engage with a Board Member or GM or regulator or NEA executive or local and foreign consultants on this subject, I get my eyes opened or reminded about a problem or bottleneck that has to be addressed.
This blog is one area where various interested people, including other consultants working in this space, can communicate. It is but one plank in what I’ve referred to as an architecture of participation that we need to build out. For more on my general philosophy for this site and my practice, see the rest of my Essential Posts.
I’m seeking engagements within the sector that allow me to work on this vision. As one example, the Panay-Guimaras Power Supply Consortium (PPSC) hired me for two months earlier this year to continue my advisory on structuring their power supply procurement process which previously had limited support through the the NRECA project I mentioned above. Procurement is but one component of EC power supply activities and the approach PPSC is taking is a pioneering but initial and limited transitional step toward a vision I referred to above. The consortium approach has its own strengths and weaknesses, but it is, nevertheless, a bold step by the ECs involved.
Of course, any engagement on any issue, large or small, is welcome. I’m currently working about 20-25% time for NRECA, helping to coordinate a three year technical assistance project to the ECs regarding procurement of financing for investments related to system loss reduction. They all contribute to my ability to economically remain active in this area and continue providing support to those that share an interest in my vision of the sector.