Energy Columns in BusinessWorld

Nuclear energy and the Giga Summit April 29, 2025 | 12:02 am My Cup Of Liberty By Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. https://www.bworldonline.com/opinion/2025/04/29/668933/nuclear-energy-and-the-giga-summit/   Last week I attended two energy fora: the Power 101: Energy Security in times of La Niña and El Niño seminar for media on April 21-22, sponsored by Aboitiz Power (AP) and the Department of Energy (DoE), and the Giga Summit 2025: The Fusion of Power and Intelligence, on April 24-25, sponsored by the Meralco Power Academy (MPA).   In his closing remarks on Day 2, AP Vice-President for Corporate Affairs Suiee Suarez optimistically said that AP’s “strategy is to diversify its portfolio with renewables and selected baseload builds including energy storage systems, thereby helping overcome the shifts and shocks brought about by changes in the weather, season, and climate. We’ve always aspired to operate and manage our power plants with as much data driven foresight and operational excel...

Nuclear energy for sustained growth April 22, 2025 | 12:02 am My Cup Of Liberty By Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. https://www.bworldonline.com/opinion/2025/04/22/666951/nuclear-energy-for-sustained-growth/   This week I am attending two important energy fora. First is the “Power 101: Energy Security in times of La Niña and El Niño” seminar for media on April 21 and 22 at the Seda Hotel BGC, Taguig, which is sponsored by Aboitiz Power (AP) and the Department of Energy (DoE). The second is the “Giga Summit 2025: The Fusion of Power and Intelligence,” on April 24 and 25 at The Fifth at Rockwell Center, Makati, and sponsored by the Meralco Power Academy. It will feature over 30 local and international experts on nuclear power and AI.   On Day 1 of Power 101, Suiee Suarez, AP Vice-President for Corporate Affairs gave a welcome message with a realistic point of view, noting that “our energy supply is subject to stresses due to variability of weather, seasons and climate cycles; demand als...

Spain’s blackout and lessons for the Philippines May 6, 2025 | 12:02 am My Cup Of Liberty By Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. https://www.bworldonline.com/opinion/2025/05/06/670391/spains-blackout-and-lessons-for-the-philippines/   The big blackout that hit Spain, Portugal, and parts of southern France on April 28 starting 12:35 p.m. was a big blackeye to pushers of more intermittent renewables in the electrical grid.   According to energy analyst Javier Blas’ data, at 12:30 p.m. of April 28, Spain’s generation mix was: solar (photovoltaic and thermal) 65.8%, wind 12%, nuclear 11.6%, cogeneration and waste 4.7%, and gas combined cycle 3.4%, likely working as an ancillary service. Coal is zero because the socialist government of Spain shut down the last coal plant in 2024. So intermittent solar-wind was providing nearly 78% of the power just five minutes before the blackout. Even with batteries, these technologies do not have the inertia needed to keep the electricity flowing, unlike t...

China energy and infra innovations April 3, 2025 | 12:02 am My Cup Of Liberty By Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. https://www.bworldonline.com/opinion/2025/04/03/663424/china-energy-and-infra-innovations/   BEIJING — The other day I rode on the world’s fastest train, and I was amazed by its speed and comfort. My hosts brought me to Hebei province by car, across many big mountains and hills, to see a big pumped hydro project, then coming back we took the train from Chengde to Beijing.   On that trip I saw many things. Nine road tunnels one way alone, the longest nearly three kilometers-long, and coming back we entered a five kilometers-long tunnel. Smooth, wide, and well-paved toll roads and provincial roads. Few flat agricultural lands that competed with industrial, commercial, and residential land, so there were many greenhouse farms to optimize land use. And from the toll roads I saw decent rural farmers houses, no barung-barung-style houses and no hand tractors, only medium-size to...

China’s trade and their rising industrial-energy capacity April 1, 2025 | 12:02 am My Cup Of Liberty By Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. https://www.bworldonline.com/opinion/2025/04/01/662971/chinas-trade-and-their-rising-industrial-energy-capacity/   BEIJING — This is the first time I have set foot in the capital city of China. I am here to study some infrastructure, commercial, and energy facilities of China and I hope to draw new lessons based on actual observations to complement my economic and statistical research of international economics and business.   Last week, on March 28, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released the country’s merchandise trade data for February. I downloaded the excel file and went back to the February 2024 file that includes comparable data for February 2023. So, the January-February data of those three years are now available. I then added the exports plus imports to get total trade of the Philippines per major country trade partner.   Se...

On GDP size, exports, FDI, and electricity generation March 18, 2025 | 12:02 am My Cup Of Liberty By Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. https://www.bworldonline.com/opinion/2025/03/18/659818/on-gdp-size-exports-fdi-and-electricity-generation/   In comparing the GDP size of countries, I use the purchasing power parity (PPP) values, not current values for two reasons. One is that PPP adjusts prices of a comparable basket of commodities that reflect varying standards of living in various nations, each of which has its own currency. And two, PPP values are consistent with electricity generation numbers, and these are in terawatt-hours (TWh), not in currency values.   For this column I have compared the data of major economies in the world plus ASEAN-5 in 2008 and 2023, 15 years apart. I took GDP size — the values of the flow of goods and services in one year — at PPP values, and compared it with levels of power generation, merchandise (or goods) exports, and foreign direct investment (FDI) ...

Philippine nuclear energy, soon please March 11, 2025 | 12:02 am My Cup Of Liberty By Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. https://www.bworldonline.com/opinion/2025/03/11/658303/philippine-nuclear-energy-soon-please/   A year ago, in early March 2024, I joined the Philippine Nuclear Trade Mission to Canada that was organized by the Canadian Embassy in Manila. The delegation was headed by Department of Energy (DoE) Undersecretary Sharon Garin, plus Science and Technology Undersecretary Leah Buendia, Energy Regulatory Commission Chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta, and Philippine Nuclear Research Institute Deputy Director Vallerie Samson.   Private sector participants included Ronald “Suiee” Suarez, Vice-President for Corporate Communications of Aboitiz Power (AP) along with Lino Bernardo and Nicole Yazon, also of AP; Froilan Savet, Vice-President and Head of Networks of Meralco; and Sebastian Quinones, Jr. of Prime Energy. Guy Boileau, Senior Trade Commissioner of the Canadian Embassy in Manila...