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Renewables

25 February 2019

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Lao PDR

Residents along the Mekong River and local NGOs are increasingly concerned about migrant fish swimways in transboundary waters after learning of the Lao government’s plan to begin construction of the Pak Lay hydropower dam in 2022.

Ngach Samin, the president of the Cambodia Indigenous Youth Association based in Stung Treng province, said the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy hydropower dam, which collapsed last September killing scores of people and displacing thousands, should make the Lao authorities consider stopping the dam’s construction.

“A hydropower dam across the Mekong River will cause many problems for downstream waterways. It will flood the homes of villagers near the project site, and the swimways of migrating fish will be blocked.

“The collapse of the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy hydropower dam remains in our memories. It was a terrible situation for Laotian and Cambodian people,” he said.

After the dam collapsed, local NGOs in Cambodia requested the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to stop discussing the Pak Lay project and pushed the Lao government to further explain the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy dam collapse. Their request was rejected.

On Friday, the MRC’s Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation and Agreement Joint Committee Working Group (PNPCA JCWG) released a summary of recommendations and suggestions of proposed impact mitigation and risk management measures.

The PNPCA JCWG made a final draft technical review report (TRR) of the Pak Lay hydropower project and plan to submit it to the Special Session of the Joint Committee in Vientiane in late March or early April.

“The Session will mark the end of the six-month prior consultation process, at which time the JC is expected to issue a statement which will pave the way for the development of a joint action plan on the proposed 770MW Pak Lay hydropower project,” read a statement.

“All these recommendations contribute to the commitment to make every effort to avoid, minimise and mitigate possible harmful effects as reflected in the 1995 Mekong Agreement and with careful consideration of feedback from stakeholders,” CEO An Pich Hatda told the PNPCA JCWG meeting.

“They are also intended to further build on the existing cooperation and confidence among the member countries,” he added.

The Lao government on June 13, last year, notified the MRC Secretariat of its intention to undertake the formal process of prior consultation on the Pak Lay project, the fourth Mekong mainstream dam to be submitted to the prior consultation.

The project is a “run-of-the-river” dam – whereby little or no water storage is provided – located in Xayaburi province’s Pak Lay district in north-western Laos, downstream of the under-construction Xayaburi hydropower station and 241km upstream of Vientiane.

The dam will operate continuously year-round with an annual average generating capacity of 4,124GWh, intended mainly for power generation for domestic supply.

The project’s total investment cost is estimated at $2,134 million with the construction expected to start in 2022 and the commercial operation to begin when the construction finishes in 2029.

Power China Resources Ltd and China National Electronics Import-Export Corporation are named as the developers, according to the official Lao notification documents.

Fisheries Action Coalition Team programme manager Om Savath said the Lao government and the developers always say they are acting responsibly in order to gain support from the governments of MRC member countries.

Oil & Gas

Major oil price hike set Tuesday

25 February 2019

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Philippines

MANILA — Filipino motorists may have to get used to higher pump prices again, as international oil prices continue marching upward.

Both major and independent oil players have announced that they will implement substantial increases in the prices of petroleum products effective early morning Tuesday (Feb. 26).

In separate announcements, Pilipinas Shell, Petron Corporation and PTT Philippines said they will hike the prices of their gasoline and diesel products by PHP1.45 per liter. Oil firms carrying kerosene will likewise increase prices by PHP1.35 per liter.

Other oil companies have yet to make formals announcements, but are also expected to carry out similar price adjustments tomorrow.

Oil market analysts explained that the upward shift in global crude prices is being partially fueled by expectations that US-China trade talks are likely to reach a happy conclusion.

With an end to the trade war between the two biggest economies in sight, hopes are high that the world economy will be shifting into high gear again. This, in turn, has given rise to hopes of higher oil demand sometime soon.

Meantime, local oil executives said tomorrow’s oil price hike only reflects current trends in the larger market, which they are constrained to pass on to the local consumer. (PNA)

Energy Economy ,
Renewables

New recycling plan taps energy fund

25 February 2019

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Thailand

A new recycling plan for discarded solar panels and vehicle batteries will stress circular methods. (Photo provided)

The government has agreed to use the remaining cash from the Energy Conservation Fund to support a new recycling plan for discarded solar panels and vehicle batteries, in line with the goal of creating a circular economy.

The Industry, Energy and Transport ministries will host the project after officials met last Thursday.

“Thailand is encouraging people and companies to use renewable power and drive electric vehicles, but it has yet to plan for a retreatment and management programme for this kind of industrial waste,” said Pasu Loharjun, permanent secretary of the Industry Ministry.

He said the three ministries agreed to cooperate to begin the plan soon.

“We are collecting related data to draw up the retreatment and management plan, while the 2-billion-baht fund will finance the project,” he said.

Mr Pasu declined to go into detail about the budget for spending from the fund.

“Currently, Thailand generates roughly 30 million tonnes of general and hazardous waste per year,” he said. “Some 3 million tonnes of this volume is hazardous waste that could be managed by landfill facilities, so the government aims to turn these landfill locations into energy resources.”

Mr Pasu said senior officials from the three ministries also talked about the 20-year National Strategy and expressed interest in promoting electric vehicles, energy storage systems and a national power grid to rapidly mobilise the country’s energy and industrial sectors.

Solar panels line the roof of a commercial building in Bangkok. The government aims to launch a recycling plan for discarded solar panels and vehicle batteries.

With the promotion of such schemes, they predict many tonnes of waste from solar panels and vehicle batteries in the near future.

Moreover, Mr Pasu said the government will accelerate the fourth phase of the national petrochemical development plan after the third one started in 2004 and ended in 2018.

Map Ta Phut in Rayong has been developed as the premier petrochemical cluster for Thailand and a global petrochemical hub for the past several decades.

“The petrochemical cluster has been put on the list of targeted industries and located in the flagship Eastern Economic Corridor,” Mr Pasu said. “There are many related petrochemical facilities in Rayong, such as the liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal with a capacity of 10 million tonnes a year.”

In addition, the Industry Ministry has asked the Energy Ministry to coordinate data from its energy information technology centre as it aims to monitor the power consumption of manufacturing plants nationwide.

Electricity/Power Grid

Can Laos afford to be the ‘Battery of Asia’?

25 February 2019

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Lao PDR

THE DEBATE over Laos’ strategy to become the “Battery of Asia” continues months after the deadly disaster at the Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy hydropower dam, even as the Lao government keeps building more dams.

Despite the previous government’s decision to suspend new dam projects and academics’ concerns over the transboundary impacts of dams on the environment and the wellbeing of people in the Mekong River Basin, Lao officials maintain that investing in hydropower dams is necessary to eradicate poverty in the country and boost the economy.

Singthong Phanthamala, head of the River Basin Planning and Development Division of the Lao Water Resources Department, said the country continues to pursue its mission to be a major power supplier in Southeast Asia through investments in dams.

Singthong said Laos had learned an expensive lesson from the collapse of the Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy dam last July.

He said the government has now come up with stricter regulations for the building and operation of dams to ensure they are safe.

“The government is focusing on water supply, environment preservation and economic development, so our duty is to provide water to all sectors, including power generation, to ensure the prosperity of the country and offer a better quality of life for all citizens,” he said.

Shortly after the dam disaster last year, the government announced it would examine safety standards at all planned dams, suspend new projects and reconsider its “Battery of Asia” policy. The plan was intended to enrich the poor land-locked nation through large-scale hydropower dam development and selling electricity to neighbouring countries.

According to a summary of Electricite Du Laos’ 2018 operations report cited in the newspaper Vientiane Mai last month, the authorities last year were still pushing for dam development while sticking to the objective of becoming the “Battery of Asia”.

The report revealed that, by the end of 2018, Laos had 53 hydropower dams, 21 of which were small structures with electricity generation capacity under 15 megawatts, while the other 32 were large.

It was also disclosed that 36 more dams were under construction and scheduled for completion by 2020.

From the opposite side of the Mekong River, Maha Sarakham University lecturer Chainarong Setthachua views with concern the reversal of the Lao government’s suspension of dam investments and the resumption of its “Battery of Asia” policy.

“Even though Laos can profit from selling electricity to Thailand and other countries with its ‘Battery of Asia’ policy, and Thai people can enjoy relatively cheap power, this business model has a hidden cost. Lao people will have to pay a heavy price through the loss of traditional livelihoods, degradation of the environment and, in Sanamxay’s case, the loss of many lives,” Chainarong said.

He argued that dam development has been proved to create more poverty among local people, not enrich them. He explained that the dams damage the fragile river ecosystem on which the local population heavily relies for food and profit, especially in the Mekong region.

“The ‘Battery of Asia’ policy is a product of the post-Cold War rise of neoliberal economics,” he said.

“Even though the government had earlier, wisely, halted consideration of all new hydropower dam projects, the leading international trade agencies and multiple transnational energy investors kept insisting that Laos should carry on with its controversial ‘Battery of Asia’ policy.

“So, the resumption of large-scale dam development in Laos is a sign that transnational energy industrialists are having a very large influence over the government’s policies.”

He stressed that Thai investors are also playing a major part in hydropower investment in Laos. He cited as an example Ch Karnchang borrowing money from many leading Thai banks for the Xayaburi dam in Xayaburi province in northern Laos, which will be the first on the Mekong mainstream south of China. It will sell up to 90 per cent of the electricity produced to Thailand.

The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand has confirmed it would buy 1,120 megawatts from the Xayaburi dam and 269 from the Nam Ngib dam, by the end of this year. The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand International has invested in the projects.

Currently, Thailand purchases 3,877 megawatts from Laos, representing 9.16 per cent of its total intake.

This is the sixth and final in a series on the fallout from last year’s dam disaster in southern Laos.

Energy Economy

Basic Energy completes acquisition of 15% of Thai EPC

23 February 2019

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Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — Listed Basic Energy Corp. has completed its acquisition of a 15 percent stake in a Thai engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, Basic Energy said it completed its acquisition of 2.52 million shares of VTE International Co. Ltd. (Thailand).

VTE International is one of the EPC contractors for the 220-megawatt (MW) solar power plant project located in Minbu, Magway Region, Myanmar.

The other contractor is Vintage EPC Co. Ltd. in which Basic Energy also has a 15 percent equity participation.

The solar project is owned by Green Earth Power, which also holds a power purchase agreement with the Myanmar government’s energy and power ministry.

The project is divided into four phases of 50 MW for Phases 1, 2 and 3 and 70 MW for Phase 4.

Phase 1 is expected to be completed by the first quarter, while the subsequent phases will be completed by 2022.

The equity investments in VTE International and Vintage EPC Co. are projected to provide Basic Energy with a steady source of revenue over the immediate term.

Moreover, these are in line with the company’s vision to be a major renewable energy and power company, with a robust portfolio of renewable energy projects.

Last June, Basic Energy signed a share purchase agreement with Meta Corp. Public Co. Ltd. of Thailand (formerly Vintage Engineering Public Co. Ltd.) to invest in its EPC subsidiaries.

A month after, Meta Corp. transferred 15,000 shares to Basic Energy.

Basic Energy continues to pursue its geothermal energy projects, while opportunities in other renewable energy projects, such as solar, wind and biomass energy, are currently undergoing due-diligence studies and work.

It has been scouting for solar power investments here and abroad to provide revenue stream, while developing geothermal prospects, which have long gestation periods.

Energy Efficiency

Energy group seeks immediate passage of Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act

23 February 2019

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Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — With the recent spike in electricity and oil prices, the Philippine Energy Efficiency Alliance (PE2) is seeking the passage of the Energy Efficiency & Conservation (EE&C) Act, which may temper the increase in prices.

PE2 president Alexander Ablaza said delays in the passage of the bill pushes back the effects of mandatory EE&C implementation, specifically dampening the rise in energy prices.

The bicameral conference committee has approved the EE&C Act and is in the process of transmitting the measure to the President for approval.

“Our energy market badly needs to arrest the business-as-usual escalation of electricity tariff and fossil fuel prices, and a further delay in the implementation of energy-saving projects, programs and investments will only serve to delay their decelerative effects on energy price increases,” Ablaza said.

He said a scaled-up energy efficiency program slows energy price escalations because of its ability to defer new capital expenditure requirements for energy infrastructure capacity upgrades from generation, transmission and distribution, and also reduce the forecasted rise in dependence on imported energy.

Ablaza also noted that every month of delay deprives the entire economy from benefiting optimally from the P37.8 trillion in energy savings estimated through 2040.

“This means that households, small businesses, buildings, industries, public facilities and other energy end-use sectors stand to collectively save less than P 37.8 trillion in avoided energy purchases between now and 2040 if the passage of the EE&C Act slips beyond this first quarter of 2019,” he said.

The Philippines has had no energy efficiency law for over 28 years, and is the last among the ASEAN nations to enforce EE&C through legislation and catalyze EE&C investments through fiscal incentives.

“The EE&C bill had a 28-year history of being refiled since the 8th Congress. The country cannot afford to prolong this delay,” Ablaza said.

Last month, the bicameral conference committee convened to reconcile the disagreeing provisions of Senate Bill 1531 and House Bill 8629 and approved the EE&C Act.

The bicameral committee agreed to re-anchor the fiscal incentives provision on existing Executive Order No. 226, otherwise known as the Omnibus Investments Code of 1987, as amended.

It, however, considered the last-minute recommendation of the Department of Finance (DOF) to reduce the period of mandatory inclusion of energy efficiency projects in the investment priorities plan of the Board of Investments from the House-proposed 15 years to an adjusted 10 years.

The Senate panel said this adjustment reflects a reasonable balance between the incentive rationalization objectives of DOF and the requirements of private investors.

Energy Cooperation

China prods PHL on West Philippine Sea joint energy exploration

22 February 2019

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Philippines

PRESIDENT Duterte is mulling over how to move forward with the country’s 29 deals with China, especially the country’s agreement on energy cooperation in oil and gas development in the West Philippine Sea. He has asked Beijing to “give me a week” to study the matter.

Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua and the President had a “productive conversation” late Wednesday on the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by both countries in November during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit, Presidential Spokesman and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador S. Panelo told the BusinessMirror.

Zhao’s courtesy call on Duterte in Malacañang lasted for about one hour and a half, Panelo said.

In a Palace briefing, Panelo said Zhao “suggested to the President” if he could already implement the MOUs with respect to the countries’ shared interest.

Asked for clarification by the BusinessMirror, Panelo said Zhao inquired on when the MOU can be implemented since both countries have already have signed agreements to cooperate.

“[He is] asking because your basis is we already agreed. When can we implement this [MOU] because your basis is we already agreed? When can we implement these so that we can already both get benefits,” Panelo said in Filipino, paraphrasing Zhao. Panelo said Duterte asked for time to ponder on how will they go about the MOUs.

“The President said, give me a week and I’ll study,” he said.

‘Not impatient’

Panelo denied that China is growing impatient about the progress of the agreements.

He said there were no particular orders issued by the President as a result of the meeting.

And, according to Panelo, the issue of he maritime rescue center being put up China in the Spratly Islands was also not brought up during the courtesy call. Moreover, Panelo said, Zhao extended an invitation to Duterte to attend the Belt and Road Forum in late April this year.

After denials that an oil-exploration deal is in the works in time for Chinese President Xi’s visit, the Philippines and China signed an agreement on cooperation on oil and gas development in the West Philippine Sea, along with at least 28 other accords last November.

Others

Enrile fears looming energy crisis in Philippines

22 February 2019

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Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — Former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile has warned limitations in Philippines’ energy, saying “there is a need for national energy independence.”

“I calculate about 60-70 percent of our energy requirements are imported,” Enrile said in a fourth episode of Itanong Mo kay Mang Johnny, a multiplatform phone-in show aired on Radyo Inquirer and Inquirer 990 Television.

“We don’t have oil, we don’t have natural gas. We do have geothermal and hydropower, as well as solar and wind but these last two contribute very small percentages,” he added.

Enrile asserted that after the “first half of the century, oil could very well reach $150 per barrel.”

The senator added that even China is faced with the same “precarious situation given that it imports 80 percent of its fuel.”

Enrile also noted that the Philippines is still developing its renewable sources of energy.

“Wind and solar each probably contribute only one percent And solar requires a lot of land, eventually you have to decide whether you will use land to grow food or produce energy,” Enrile said, referring to the limitations of Philippines’ source of energy.

Enrile also took issue with government’s lack of fund to bankroll oil explorations.

“There has really been no government neglect of the energy crisis. There may have been some inadequacies, but the real problem is the lack of money. We have to open the country to the necessary capital to explore all our resources. We may have oil here in the country, but we don’t have the money (to explore for it),” he said.

ROTC needed for national defense

Enrile also urged the proposed return of Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), saying it would boost the country’s national defense.

“Our first obligation is to give up our life for our country. No one else will protect you, your family and your children except yourself and the people,” he said.

When asked about his opinion on improving the country’s armed forces, Enrile called for a stronger Navy and Air Force in the Philippines.

“We need a strong Navy. We need a strong Air Force. Our ground forces are sufficient, but we don’t have the air power for a protective umbrella over the Phillippines. We still don’t have a Navy that can face the Chinese Coast Guard on equal terms,” he said.

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‘Not impatient’

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