KUANTAN, MALAYSIA—Companies and governments around the world are anxiously watching the fate of a sprawling industrial facility 30 kilometers north of this city on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia.
The 100-hectare Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) produces 10% of the world’s output of rare earth oxides (REOs), minerals needed in technologies including mobile phones, hard drives, fiber optic cables, surgical lasers, and cruise missiles. Lynas, an Australian company, imports concentrated ores from mines on Mount Weld in Australia and refines them here in Malaysia, where costs are lower; it sells REOs—which include cerium compounds, used in catalytic converters, and neodymium, critical to permanent magnets—to Japan, the United States, and other countries. The plant produced almost 18,000 tons of REOs in 2018.
Now, the LAMP faces closure, barely 7 years after it opened. Environmental groups have long opposed the storage on the site of slightly radioactive waste from the extraction process, and they found a sympathetic ear in a new government elected in May 2018. In December 2018, the government demanded that the facility ship its radioactive waste back to Australia if it wants to renew its operating license, which expires on 2 September. On 12 March, a government task force to help organize the shipments was announced. But the company says exporting the more than 451,000 tons of residue by the deadline is “unachievable.”
The standoff has caused Lynas’s stock to lose almost half its value since May 2018 and has worried many countries hungry for REOs. A shutdown would be “a significant event with a ripple effect,” says Ryan Castilloux, a metals and minerals analyst at Adamas Intelligence in Amsterdam. For one thing, the shutdown would strengthen China’s position as the dominant supplier of REOs, which many countries deem a strategic risk. Japan’s electric vehicle industry, for instance, would lose its main supplier of REOs for permanent magnets; “it would have to reestablish a relationship with China after almost a decade of friction” in the REO trade, Castilloux says.
Rare earth elements (REEs) occupy atomic numbers 57 to 71, the “lanthanide series” of the periodic table, and also include scandium and yttrium. Their exceptional magnetic and conductive traits make them critical to clean energy technology, such as hybrid fuel cells, solar panels, and wind turbine magnets. “Although rare earth oxides production worldwide is only worth several billions of dollars, it is essential for industries worth trillions,” Castilloux says.
Rare earth deposits themselves are not scarce—more than 800 are known on land. Refining them takes lots of corrosive chemicals and generates huge amounts of residue. China was long the sole supplier; when it reduced exports in 2010, citing environmental concerns, prices jumped as much as 26-fold and major consumers scrambled for alternate sources. Lynas has become a “flagship” of REO production outside China, Castilloux says. The United States and Myanmar mine REEs as well, but they are processed in China, which today produces about 89% of the global REO output.
But in Malaysia, the waste has raised red flags. At the LAMP, concentrated ores are roasted with sulfuric acid to dissolve the rare earths and then diluted with water in a process called water leach purification, leaving a moist, pastelike residue. By September 2018, the LAMP had already produced 1.5 million tons of residue; because the ores contain thorium and uranium, almost 30% of it is slightly radioactive.
Some REO facilities elsewhere have built permanent, secure facilities to store such waste, says Julie Klinger, a geographer and expert in REO mining at Boston University; others are secretive about what they do with it. In a plan approved by the previous government, Lynas agreed to try to recycle its residues. The company has sponsored Malaysian researchers to find new uses, including products that can improve soil properties.
These efforts have not yielded commercial products, however. And in December 2018, a new executive committee, appointed by Malaysia’s Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change to evaluate the LAMP, cautioned against using the waste in agriculture because radioactive nuclides might accumulate in the environment. Radiochemist Amran Majid, a retired radiation protection officer at the National University of Malaysia in Bangi, and others have suggested a different strategy—extract the thorium, which accounts for the vast majority of the radioactivity, for use as fuel for nuclear reactors.
So far, the LAMP has been storing residues on site instead, in rapidly growing hills. The imagery of piled up radioactive waste has sparked public fears, which experts say are exaggerated. Workers at the site are exposed to less than 1.05 millisieverts (mSv) per year, Lynas reports, far below the 20-mSv threshold advised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for workers exposed to radiation. The health effects of such low doses are “negligible,” says Kwan Hoong Ng, a medical physicist at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. People outside the facility are at an even lower risk, Amran adds.
Still, in 2011 and 2014 IAEA found that Lynas lacked adequate plans for a permanent facility if recycling fails. The executive committee has suggested Lynas build one immediately, citing the potential for natural disasters to disperse the residues. (Monsoon storms and floods hit the area 4 months of the year.) Radioactivity isn’t the only risk, says Bun Teet Tan, chair of Save Malaysia Stop Lynas, a nongovernmental organization here. A 2013 review by the Öko-Institute in Darmstadt, Germany, commissioned by Tan’s group, found that heavy metals such as nickel, chromium, lead, and mercury could contaminate groundwater. Despite the new government’s tough language, Tan worries whether “real action would ever be taken,” saying the government has been lax about enforcing regulations at the LAMP in the past.
Neither the ministry nor Lynas responded to interview requests from Science. In a financial report issued in late February, Lynas directors said it has lived up to the terms of its operating license, and that it will build permanent storage if necessary. Exporting the residue should be the last resort, the report says. But the government hasn’t budged.
About 30% of the 1.5 million tons of residue stored on Lynas’s facility in Malaysia is slightly radioactive and covered with a black lining.
Save Malaysia Stop Lynas
Radioactive waste standoff could slash high tech’s supply of rare earth elements
KUANTAN, MALAYSIA—Companies and governments around the world are anxiously watching the fate of a sprawling industrial facility 30 kilometers north of this city on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia.
The 100-hectare Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) produces 10% of the world’s output of rare earth oxides (REOs), minerals needed in technologies including mobile phones, hard drives, fiber optic cables, surgical lasers, and cruise missiles. Lynas, an Australian company, imports concentrated ores from mines on Mount Weld in Australia and refines them here in Malaysia, where costs are lower; it sells REOs—which include cerium compounds, used in catalytic converters, and neodymium, critical to permanent magnets—to Japan, the United States, and other countries. The plant produced almost 18,000 tons of REOs in 2018.
Now, the LAMP faces closure, barely 7 years after it opened. Environmental groups have long opposed the storage on the site of slightly radioactive waste from the extraction process, and they found a sympathetic ear in a new government elected in May 2018. In December 2018, the government demanded that the facility ship its radioactive waste back to Australia if it wants to renew its operating license, which expires on 2 September. On 12 March, a government task force to help organize the shipments was announced. But the company says exporting the more than 451,000 tons of residue by the deadline is “unachievable.”
The standoff has caused Lynas’s stock to lose almost half its value since May 2018 and has worried many countries hungry for REOs. A shutdown would be “a significant event with a ripple effect,” says Ryan Castilloux, a metals and minerals analyst at Adamas Intelligence in Amsterdam. For one thing, the shutdown would strengthen China’s position as the dominant supplier of REOs, which many countries deem a strategic risk. Japan’s electric vehicle industry, for instance, would lose its main supplier of REOs for permanent magnets; “it would have to reestablish a relationship with China after almost a decade of friction” in the REO trade, Castilloux says.
Rare earth elements (REEs) occupy atomic numbers 57 to 71, the “lanthanide series” of the periodic table, and also include scandium and yttrium. Their exceptional magnetic and conductive traits make them critical to clean energy technology, such as hybrid fuel cells, solar panels, and wind turbine magnets. “Although rare earth oxides production worldwide is only worth several billions of dollars, it is essential for industries worth trillions,” Castilloux says.
Rare earth deposits themselves are not scarce—more than 800 are known on land. Refining them takes lots of corrosive chemicals and generates huge amounts of residue. China was long the sole supplier; when it reduced exports in 2010, citing environmental concerns, prices jumped as much as 26-fold and major consumers scrambled for alternate sources. Lynas has become a “flagship” of REO production outside China, Castilloux says. The United States and Myanmar mine REEs as well, but they are processed in China, which today produces about 89% of the global REO output.
Chinese dominance
Rare earths are mined worldwide but are mostly processed in China. Lynas is the only notable rare earth oxide supplier outside of China.
But in Malaysia, the waste has raised red flags. At the LAMP, concentrated ores are roasted with sulfuric acid to dissolve the rare earths and then diluted with water in a process called water leach purification, leaving a moist, pastelike residue. By September 2018, the LAMP had already produced 1.5 million tons of residue; because the ores contain thorium and uranium, almost 30% of it is slightly radioactive.
Some REO facilities elsewhere have built permanent, secure facilities to store such waste, says Julie Klinger, a geographer and expert in REO mining at Boston University; others are secretive about what they do with it. In a plan approved by the previous government, Lynas agreed to try to recycle its residues. The company has sponsored Malaysian researchers to find new uses, including products that can improve soil properties.
These efforts have not yielded commercial products, however. And in December 2018, a new executive committee, appointed by Malaysia’s Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change to evaluate the LAMP, cautioned against using the waste in agriculture because radioactive nuclides might accumulate in the environment. Radiochemist Amran Majid, a retired radiation protection officer at the National University of Malaysia in Bangi, and others have suggested a different strategy—extract the thorium, which accounts for the vast majority of the radioactivity, for use as fuel for nuclear reactors.
So far, the LAMP has been storing residues on site instead, in rapidly growing hills. The imagery of piled up radioactive waste has sparked public fears, which experts say are exaggerated. Workers at the site are exposed to less than 1.05 millisieverts (mSv) per year, Lynas reports, far below the 20-mSv threshold advised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for workers exposed to radiation. The health effects of such low doses are “negligible,” says Kwan Hoong Ng, a medical physicist at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. People outside the facility are at an even lower risk, Amran adds.
Still, in 2011 and 2014 IAEA found that Lynas lacked adequate plans for a permanent facility if recycling fails. The executive committee has suggested Lynas build one immediately, citing the potential for natural disasters to disperse the residues. (Monsoon storms and floods hit the area 4 months of the year.) Radioactivity isn’t the only risk, says Bun Teet Tan, chair of Save Malaysia Stop Lynas, a nongovernmental organization here. A 2013 review by the Öko-Institute in Darmstadt, Germany, commissioned by Tan’s group, found that heavy metals such as nickel, chromium, lead, and mercury could contaminate groundwater. Despite the new government’s tough language, Tan worries whether “real action would ever be taken,” saying the government has been lax about enforcing regulations at the LAMP in the past.
Neither the ministry nor Lynas responded to interview requests from Science. In a financial report issued in late February, Lynas directors said it has lived up to the terms of its operating license, and that it will build permanent storage if necessary. Exporting the residue should be the last resort, the report says. But the government hasn’t budged.
Saleem Ali, an expert in energy and the environment at University of Delaware in Newark who visited the LAMP in 2014, says the anti-Lynas fervor in Malaysia is “unfortunately a classic case of the not-in-my-backyard syndrome.” He says recycling is a commendable option but worries activists are now “stigmatizing the waste.” Given the importance of REOs for green technology, “The industry needs to make the case more effectively that [it] benefits not just the local, but also the global community,” Ali says.
While the dispute in Malaysia has intensified, REO producers from developed countries are establishing new footholds around the world—in Africa, Central and Southeast Asia, and South America. A Lynas shutdown “might reduce global investment,” says Castilloux, as other investors might fear similar problems, “or it could fast-track other players to fill the gap.” But Klinger says the conflict could yet become an “exciting opportunity” for Lynas to come up with more innovative solutions that could save the plant and become a model for clean REO production. “Lynas could assume a leadership role globally and show other companies how to do the same thing,” she says.
Turkey-based 232MW rental power ship ‘Kaya Bey’ docked at Karachi Port Trust (KPT) in 2010. RIZWAN TABASSUM/AFP
Cambodia succeeded in negotiations to lease a 200MW Turkish power ship to meet electricity demands in Phnom Penh, amid a nearly 400MW electricity shortage nationwide, Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Friday.
Speaking at the 18th Government-Private Sector Forum on Friday at the Peace Palace, the prime minister said the Kingdom reached a deal with Turkey for a three-year supply of electricity.
“Negotiations were successful for the lease of the power ship to supply Phnom Penh’s [electricity] needs. We will use the [power ship] for no less than three years,” he said.
He expressed his thanks to Turkish Ambassador Ayda Unlu for facilitating the deal with Karpowership, the owner and operator of the power ship and subsidiary of Karadeniz Holding.
This agreement comes after Keo Rattanak, the director-general of Electricite Du Cambodge (EDC) under the Electricity Authority of Cambodia (EAC), flew to Turkey for negotiations.
Hun Sen previously said that importing the power ship would not impact the cost of electricity supply.
Despite the Turkish power ship’s electricity being more expensive – at $0.14 per kWh, a $0.03 mark-up from local hydropower plants – the state has said that it will subsidise the extra cost, he said.
Early this month, the prime minister called on business owners and the public to temporarily use their own electric generators as EAC cannot generate enough electricity to meet demands due to low water levels in hydropower station reservoirs.
He said demand has been increasing due to a boom in the construction sector.
The Kingdom plans to increase electric power supply to 2,870.65MW next year – up from 2,650.26MW this year, according to EAC’s 2018 annual report.
Keo Rattanak told Fresh News on Sunday that the EDC has deployed solar-powered electricity to more than 106,640 rural houses with more than $27 million of its funds.
Surrounded by bigger international players from neighbouring countries, Cambodia’s potential to import LNG has always been overlooked till recently. Announcements of interests by Russia and Indonesia to develop Cambodia’s LNG infrastructure in Cambodia depicts the immense opportunity for gas to power in Cambodia.
As one of the fastest growing economy amongst other ASEAN countries, with growth of more than than 7% annually for the past decade, Cambodia is a high potential country for investment. According to the latest ranking by Market Potential Index, Cambodia is ranked 37th in the world for investment.
Such high economic growth comes with strong demand for power generation. According to an estimate by Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and EAST Asia (ERIA), electricity demand in Cambodia will increase 8.7 folds from nearly 5TWh in 2015 to nearly 40TWh by 2040. The report by ERIA also indicates the percentage of power generation by gas to be at 18% in 2040, clearly implying the major role that LNG can take up in Cambodia.
Given positive outlook and strong support from the Ministry of Mines and Energy, Oil and gas Cambodia will take place on the 7- 8 May 2019 at the Sokha Hotel in Phnom Penh. This event will also engage high levels of participation from major oil and gas players in Cambodia including Tela kampuchea, PTT Cambodia, Total Cambodge, PetroVietnam Cambodia etc.
Do not miss this exciting opportunity to network with all the major players in Cambodia whilst charting your business strategies for this up and coming LNG market in the ASEAN region!
Contact our dedicated sales representatives at [email protected] or call us at +65 6742 2155 to see how this event can help position your brand in this exciting new oil and gas market.
We have downwardly revised our short-term hydropower generation forecasts in Cambodia, from 4.46 TWh to 3.06TWh in 2019 as recent droughts have threatened Cambodia’s hydropower output reliability.
In the immediate term, we expect Cambodia to import more electricity from neighbouring states to meet the power shortage.
Despite current drought challenges, we maintain a positive long-term growth outlook for Cambodia’s hydropower sector as we expect the country to continue ramping up their hydropower capacity and generation to meet rising power demand and consumption.
MANILA, Philippines — Earth Hour this year should be more than just turning lights off to save on electricity and more about adopting alternative power sources, a party-list group said on Saturday.
The Murang Kuryente Partylist (MKP), which is seeking a House seat for the first time, made the call as Malacañang announced it would also join Earth Hour and urged Filipinos to also reduce their use of plastic.
“In this year’s Earth Hour, we will turn on lights, powered by solar energy, to show that there is an alternative to fossil fuels,” said Gerry Arances, the group’s first nominee.
MKP joined Piglas Kababaihan, Philippine Movement for Climate Justice and the Koalisyon Pabahay ng Pilipinas in promoting the use of solar-powered lights.
Arances said MKP would push for lower electricity costs by reducing charges and surcharges stemming from the use of fossil fuels and curbing corruption.
Technological innovations and favourable government policies are among the four trends expected to drive Southeast Asia’s transition to renewable energy in the coming years.
A report published by global auditing firm KPMG on Tuesday titled ‘The Renewable Energy Transition’ noted that while there are still 70 million ASEAN citizens without access to reliable electricity, the potential for renewable energy is huge in those markets and governments are increasingly turning to solar and wind energy to address the issue.
Consumers driving the green agenda forward and the entry of new funds into the ASEAN renewable energy market are two other trends identified in the report.
Each of ASEAN’s 10 members have set targets for renewable energy, and technological innovations such as better solar power efficiency and floating solar panels means that renewable energy is now more accessible than ever before.
The establishment of RE100 in 2014 – a collaborative, global initiative uniting more than 100 influential businesses committed to 100 percent renewable energy – is a prime example of how consumers are helping to boost demand for renewable energy, especially since commerce and industry use up two thirds of the world’s electricity. Among the companies in the group include Google, Microsoft, Coca Cola and IKEA – all of which have a strong presence in ASEAN.
The World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan Bank for International Cooperation are leading the way in renewable energy investment in the region, which has helped to bring prices down. While prices have often been a key concern, falling costs and rising demand are now helping to push the industry forward.
“The price of renewable energy has dropped sharply over the past five years and is expected to reach the price of electrical energy within the next five years,” said Sharad Somani, Executive Director and Asia Pacific Head of Power & Utilities at KPMG. “Once that happens, there will be more investors.”
Cheap energy, good government policies
The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) released a report last August which showed that the Philippines – where an estimated 20 million people lack constant electricity supply and 12 million have none at all – can reduce its electricity costs to just 2.50 Philippine pesos (US$0.05) per kilowatt-hour (kWh) by installing rooftop solar. By comparison, diesel costs 15 Philippine pesos (US$0.28) per kWh and coal costs 3.8 Philippine pesos (US$0.07) per kWh.
Source: KPMG
The report titled ‘Philippines can lower electricity costs, improve energy security by developing rooftop solar potential’ also pointed out that rapidly-declining costs and technological advances in renewable energy, energy efficiency and distributed storage is helping push the sector forward.
With the Philippine Board of Investments approving eight solar projects worth US$1.6 billion last year, continued government support is helping to replace coal and diesel models with indigenous alternatives.
“Solar, wind, run-of-river hydro, geothermal, biogas, and storage are competitive, viable domestic options that can be combined to create a cheaper, more diverse and secure energy system,” said Sara Jane Ahmed, an IEEFA energy finance analyst and the author of the report.
Hybrid renewable energy systems are becoming commonplace in rural and remote areas; the system usually consisting of two or more renewable energy sources used together to provide increased efficiency and better energy supply balance.
Energy demand to surge
With ASEAN’s strong economic growth exceeding four percent annually, the region’s energy consumption has doubled since 1995 – and demand is expected to continue growing at 4.7 percent per year through 2034, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in its ‘Renewable Energy Market Analysis: Southeast Asia’ report published last year.
With that in mind, ASEAN has set a target of 23 percent renewables in the region’s energy mix by 2025 – a 250% increase from 2014. To do that, though, Southeast Asian countries will have to substantially scale-up their deployment of renewables in the power sector, as well as in heating, cooling and transport.
According to Jonathan Goh, Director for External Relations at the Energy Market Authority of Singapore, ASEAN also has to focus on energy storage as one of the solutions to overcome the energy intermittency affecting renewable energy such as solar.
Singapore’s flourishing renewable energy eco-system offers technical experience, established financial institutions and interested investors which can help the country, and ASEAN, position itself as renewable energy deployment leaders.
With its huge potential in renewable energy, ASEAN can be the new hub for renewable energy deployment, innovation and investments.
Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen has told officials to cut off electricity to the homes of those who claim he orchestrated blackouts to drum up public support for a controversial hydropower dam, after the head of an environmental NGO suggested the government was responsible for power outages that have plagued the country this year.
Over the weekend, RFA’s Khmer Service reported that residents and activists in Koh Kong province believe the government has been restricting power flow to the region to justify building the Stung Cheay Areng hydropower dam, despite environmental concerns that shelved the project in 2015.
RFA quoted Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, founder of local environmental watchdog Mother Nature, as saying that officials should resign and apologize to the public for the cuts, which have lasted for several weeks and are expected to continue through May.
The government has attributed the shortages to high temperatures affecting the ability of dams to generate power and high levels of public consumption, and said the grid is around 400 megawatts short of what is needed to supply the country during the dry season.
On Tuesday, Hun Sen said that an electricity shortage “is not a reason to build a hydropower dam,” and called the claims that the government planned to go ahead with the Stung Cheay Areng project untrue.
“If we know which house [belongs to those accusing the government], please shut off the electricity supply—let them light torches,” the prime minister said, speaking at a ceremony to recognize the opening of a water system in Kampot province.
The Khmer Times quoted Kin Phea, director general of the Royal Academy of Cambodia’s International Relations Institute, as saying that critics “should consider the facts rather than be driven by political motivation,” and blamed the shortages on climate change.
In response to Hun Sen’s comments, Affiliated Network for Social Accountability (ANSA) executive director San Chey told RFA that the government should accept criticism and be willing to make changes if complaints are legitimate.
“The government can’t avoid criticism over the blackout,” he said, adding that officials should work to provide a solution to the problem instead.
Cambodia’s government has said it will lease a floating power station from Turkey to generate additional power for the country, and also recently announced plans to purchase electricity from its neighbors.
On Wednesday, government spokesman Phay Siphan announced in a Facebook post that the Council of Ministers will vote April 5 on whether to approve an 80-megawatt hydropower dam in Pursat province and another dam of 60-megawatt capacity in Kampong Chhnang province to lessen the impact of power shortages, but didn’t elaborate on details of the two proposed projects.
Mother Nature’s Gonzalez-Davidson told RFA he was unable to comment on whether the government should proceed with the two dams, as he lacks information about the projects, but suggested that the government would be better off investing in solar energy because the infrastructure takes less time to put in place and power production is far more sustainable.
“Solar energy is cheaper, doesn’t result in forced evictions, and has no impact on fish stocks,” he said.
Mekong development
The controversy over the shortages came as environmental NGO International Rivers released a factsheet on the impact of hydropower development based on the findings of a 2018 study conducted by the Mekong River Commission (MRC)—an intergovernmental organization that works directly with the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam to jointly manage shared water resources.
According to International Rivers, the study found that the plans for 11 large hydropower dams on the lower Mekong River mainstream and 120 tributary dams by 2040 “seriously threaten the region’s ecology and economy, as well as local people’s access to sufficient and nutritious food.”
But the group said that since the study’s release in February 2018, extensive dam construction on the lower Mekong mainstream and within the Mekong basin “has continued unabated.”
The study warns of impacts in current and proposed Mekong hydropower expansion due to losses to fisheries, sediment transport and other ecosystems services that International Rivers said would in turn heighten food insecurity and vulnerability of communities throughout the basin.
The study also recommended that member countries consider emerging energy technologies, such as solar and wind, as alternatives to hydropower.
“Assessing these alternatives, together with demand-side management and energy-efficiency measures, would provide major insights for managing water, energy, and food security more sustainably in the lower Mekong basin,” International Rivers said.
Cambodia’s Mines and Energy Ministry has said that Cambodia produced 2,650 megawatts of energy in 2018—50 percent of which came from hydroelectric dams.
That has been the scale of savings crunched by Senate Committee on Energy Chairman Sherwin T. Gatchalian, the principal author of the newly signed Energy Virtual One-Stop Shop (EVOSS) Law, that will then serve as digitally-enabled platform of streamlining approval processes on energy projects.
Patently, the law that was signed by President Rodrigo Duterte last March 8, takes the form of an “online system that allows the coordinated submission and synchronous processing of all required data and information” and will be the single decision-making portal for actions on applications for permits of new power projects.
“With this law, red tape in the energy sector will soon become a thing of the past as it promotes faster, simplified permitting process that would allow foreign and domestic investors with the capacity to build cutting-edge power plants to enter the market and stimulate competition in the Philippine energy generation industry,” Gatchalian said.
In turn, the more intense competition that could be spurred by the smooth running processing of project approvals could help bring down electricity tariff for consumers.
“With EVOSS, we estimate that a decrease in generation costs could lead to reduction of consumer electricity prices by as much as P0.35 per kWh,” the lawmaker said.
He thus further illustrated that for a household with average consumption of 200 kilowatt hours (kWh) – the resulting yearly savings could hover at P840, which could be a fraction of family budgets better allocated to other prime commodities.
Under the EVOSS law, the Department of Energy (DOE) is directed to “operate and maintain an effective information technology infrastructure system,” that will then physically and methodically aid the government in processing power project applications for permits and certifications.
On an interim phase of two years, a steering committee chaired by the Office of the President and having the Energy Secretary as vice chairperson, shall initially administer the EVOSS permitting platform.
That particular body shall have memberships from other key agencies involved in approvals of power project applications and permitting – chiefly the secretaries of the Departments of Agriculture, Agrarian Reform, Environment and Natural Resources, Interior and Local Government, and Information and Communications Technology, the chairperson of the Energy Regulatory Commission, the chairperson of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples; the executive director of the National Water Resources Board; the chairperson of the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines; and the head of system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.
Following consultation with the steering committee, it was prescribed that the Energy Secretary shall initiate processes for its department to “invest in the necessary hardware and software to improve and update the operation and maintenance of the EVOSS – and that shall include a virtual storage public data center. (MMV)
