PASAY CITY -- Senator Win Gatchalian urged the public to practice energy efficiency during the holidays to save money.
Gatchalian also called on the Department of Energy (DOE) to intensify the information campaign to stir public awareness on the judicious conservation and efficient utilization of energy resources.
“This policy is explicitly provided to be carried out by the DOE under RA 11285 or the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act as well as Proclamation No. 1427,” he said.
Proclamation No. 1427 declares December of every year as Energy Consciousness Month.
Under the provisions of RA 11285, the DOE is tasked to develop and undertake a national awareness and advocacy campaign on energy efficiency and conservation in partnership with business, academe, non-government organizations, and other sectors.
Gatchalian enjoined the public and establishments to consider using energy-efficient light-emitting diode (LED) light bulbs which requires less maintenance and comes out cheaper instead of the traditional incandescent string lights for Christmas decorations.
While the use of electronic devices is likely to be frequently used during the holidays, the senator said it will be better to keep gadgets unplugged when not in use and turn off idle appliances to lower energy consumption and lessen spikes in electricity bills.
Since the implementation of RA 11285 in January 2020, the Senate Energy Committee Chairperson noted that the DOE has yet to carry out 39 provisions of the law.
“Half of it is still not implemented. This law is very important because it promotes energy efficiency by mandating certain consumption levels for commercial and industrial corporations and it gives DOE a lot of power to implement efficiency and conservation in businesses. We’re urging the DOE to fully implement this because if we can save, then that’s already tantamount to producing new electricity,” he said.
“We’ve seen some initial data and we’ve seen savings of about 23% from businesses if this law is fully implemented. That’s the same savings that we can realize if the government also fully implements the law,” he added. (OSWG)
