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The GEMP is overseen by the Inter-Agency Energy Efficiency and Conservation Committee (IAEECC) created by Republic Act 11285, or the “Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act,” which took effect in late 2019. Under RA 11285, the government has a target of reducing its total electricity and fuel consumption by at least 10 percent by implementing energy efficiency and conservation strategies.
The DoE said the implementation of the program under RA 11285 helped the government to boost its energy savings fourfold, from about 5 million kWh under older conservation initiatives to the current 20 million kWh.
Some of the energy-saving strategies employed in government offices and facilities include changing to lower-energy LED lighting, replacing older air conditioning equipment with inverter-type units, using electric, hybrid or more fuel-efficient vehicles, and within the DoE itself, adopting a hybrid work scheme whereby most employees are able to work from home at least one day per week. Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said this scheme alone had resulted in an estimated 49 percent savings in electricity for the department since its implementation in February, amounting to about P5.13 million or about 430,000 kWh of electricity.
The DoE has since proposed to the IAEECC that its flexible work scheme be adopted by other government agencies.
Commenting on the good news of the government’s first-quarter energy savings, Lotilla said, “We commend the efforts of our government agencies in implementing energy efficiency measures. Small acts and what appears to be minor could indeed drive significant impact, especially when the entire bureaucracy, including the local government units and state universities and colleges, would adopt behavioral changes and imbibe energy conservation as a way of life.”
That’s great, but we see no reason why that objective could not be pushed for the entire population. Many of the energy conservation measures utilized under the mandate to government entities are indeed “small acts and what appears to be minor,” which is another way of saying “easy things to do that do not significantly change one’s normal activities, nor impose unbearable costs.” And of course, many households and businesses do follow some energy conservation practices, but not everyone does, either from a lack of awareness or a mistaken belief that doing so would be expensive or inconvenient.
Of the various conservation methods used, the only one that may give businesses pause — though it would likely be welcomed by working individuals — is the flexible work arrangement that has been successfully piloted by the DoE. Although the government has backed away from the Duterte administration’s mandates for some enterprises and strong encouragement for others to have employees return to “normal” pre-pandemic work routines as the threat of Covid-19 began to wane, it has not exactly promoted the idea of hybrid or flexible work. Encouraging businesses to implement such schemes if they can do so, and perhaps even developing some incentives for it is something the government should seriously consider, given the enormous savings in energy it would provide.
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