Energy Columns in BusinessWorld

On hydropower and CBK’s privatization July 8, 2025 | 12:02 am My Cup Of Liberty By Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. https://www.bworldonline.com/opinion/2025/07/08/683682/on-hydropower-and-cbks-privatization/   The Philippines experiences plenty of flooding yearly. Our problem is we have too much water and thus floods, but we do not have enough dams, weirs, artificial lakes, and other water catchment and storage structures to take advantage and control all that water. In 2024, hydroelectricity contributed 11.1 terawatt-hours (TWh) or 8.6% of our total power generation.   Many Asian nations hydroelectricity generation is high, like China with 1,354 TWh, Vietnam with 89 TWh, Malaysia has 34 TWh, and Indonesia’s 26 TWh (see Table 1).   On June 10, the Energy department released the Notice of Award for Green Energy Auction 3 (GEA-3) for Pumped-Storage Hydropower (PSH) with a combined capacity of 6,100 megawatts (MW) in Luzon alone. The Energy Regulatory Board’s (ERC) recommended rate...

Expanding our GDP size and nuclear development July 1, 2025 | 12:02 am My Cup Of Liberty By Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. https://www.bworldonline.com/opinion/2025/07/01/682295/expanding-our-gdp-size-and-nuclear-development/   Last week, on June 26, the Energy Institute (UK) released its annual Statistical Review of World Energy (SRWE) 2025. This has been among my favorite databases and sources of Excel files for many years.   So, I start by comparing the power generation of major economies with large gross domestic product (GDP) size at purchasing power parity (PPP) values, which comes from the IMF World Economic Outlook (WEO) 2025 database.   The top five largest economies in the world in GDP size in 2024 were also the top five in power generation. In GDP size, China is 1.3 times larger than the US, 5.8 times larger than Japan, 6.4 times larger than Germany, 8.9 times larger than the UK, and 27.9 larger than the Philippines.   China’s electricity production in 2024 was ...

Hydrocarbons, pumped storage hydro and economic growth   ENERGY, INFRA AND ECONOMICS - Bienvenido Oplas Jr. - The Philippine Star  June 26, 2025 | 12:00am https://www.philstar.com/business/2025/06/26/2453279/hydrocarbons-pumped-storage-hydro-and-economic-growth   There are a number of good developments in the Philippine energy sector recently. Consider these reports in The Philippine STAR written by Brix Lelis:  “DOE: Drilling operations begin at Malampaya field” (June 21); “Meralco, Gokongweis expand power supply deal” (June 24); “MGen inks supply deals with D&L unit” (June 25); “DOE seeking Chinese expertise on battery storage facilities” (June 25); “‘Philippines, Tiger Cub economies to ignite global oil demand’” (June 25).   We need more hydrocarbons, oil and gas energy to power the Philippines’ high growth trajectory. The number of vehicles especially large trucks and buses that transport heavy loads and millions of passengers will need more oil. Th...

On oil price shocks and inflation, growth and wage coercion June 17, 2025 | 12:02 am My Cup Of Liberty By Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. https://www.bworldonline.com/opinion/2025/06/17/679426/on-oil-price-shocks-and-inflation-growth-and-wage-coercion/   The Israel-Iran war is now five days old, and the immediate impact is a crude oil price hike. From an average of $61-$62 per barrel from early April to early June 2025, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude quickly jumped to $68-$73 per barrel from June 13 onwards. The war looks like it will last for several weeks or months, so elevated world oil prices will be with us.   I checked data on the previous wars in the Middle East, the oil price hikes that followed, and the inflation rates of G7 countries and selected Asian nations at the time. China and Vietnam do not have inflation data from the 1970s so I removed them from the list.   Four periods that had oil price shocks are covered: 1.) 1974, mainly as a result of the big Yom Kip...