Hydroelecric plant visit in Mintal

To get more insight on the Power production in Mindanao the EPs are visiting several power plants in Davao City and the area close to Davao City. The first power plant visited was a small hydroelectric plant in Barangay Mintal owned by Hedcor. Hedcor is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the AboitizPower Corporation. It specializes in generating renewable energy from run-of-river hydropower systems. The EPs were welcomed at the Barangay Hall by the Barangay captain Ramon Bargamento, who told something about the history of the Barangay and the hydroelectric power plant.

Even though the power plant is relatively small (approximately 600 kW) it usually provides all the necessary electricity for the Barangay Mintal. Originally constructed by the Japanese community before the second world war, the power plant has been providing residents with electricity for many years. The original turbines installed by the Japanese are no longer used, but the original channel built to guide a part of the river towards the power plant is still in use today.

The channel guides the river water to a reservoir where multiple filters are used to remove the trash and waste from the stream. There is usually someone present to manually clean out the filters and dump everything that's stuck in the filters next to the stream. The large piles of leaves and other trash can be seen on the side of some of the pictures.

The water from the reservoir is then used to drive three turbines to generate power.

Finally the electricity is fed to the power grid and transported to the Barangay through power lines.

This concluded the tour of the Mintal hydroelectric power plant. The following is a picture of the EPs, the friendly tour guide, and the UNPLUG project manager Kate Dublin in front of the power plant building.

Cycle 4 orientation

As mentioned in a previous post there is an energy crisis in Mindanao. To get the EPs of Unplug Cycle 4 orientated about the energy situation in Mindanao there was a meeting with a representative of the local Department of Energy.

The representative of the Department of Energy gave a presentation on the renewable energy use in Mindanao. The EPs gave presentations about the energy situation in their home countries of Finland, Germany, and the Netherlands. This post will provide summaries of the presentations.

The UNPLUG EPs and project leaders together with
the DOE representative.

Renewable energy in Mindanao

More than 55% of the power generated in Mindanao is from renewable sources. The implementation of renewable energy in the Philippines already started in the 1970's when the country started to develop it's geothermal resources.The Philippines are blessed with abundant solar, tidal, hydro, wind, geothermal, and biomass resources which makes the transition to renewable energy practical. In addition the power generated from hydroelectric power (over 50%) is cheaper than power generation from fossil sources. Because of the large scale implementation of renewable energy in Mindanao, the island has the lowest electricity prices in the entire Philippines. Furthermore, worldwide concerns about climate change mitigation and energy independence also play a role in the Philippine pro-renewable agenda.

Renewable energy stimulates the Economic and Local Development policy in Mindanao, an approach to developments that places importance on activities at the local level. The Economic and Local Development includes:

• Promote favorable investment climate
• Leads to avoided fuel costs or foreign exchange
• Promote rural and off-grid development
• Estimated $1.23 billion net benefits through development of 2,500 MW of renewable energy until 2014
• Savings in health and welfare cost/benefits due to less air pollution.

The dependence on hydroelectric power is part of the reason why there is an energy crisis in Mindanao, since hydroelectric power plants are very vulnerable to climate change. To solve the energy crisis the Department of Energy is promoting energy conservation to keep the demand in check. It is however expected that even with a more energy efficient approach the energy demand will keep rising in the coming years. New sources of power are therefore necessary. One way to increase power production is by installing oil and coal power plants, but these power plants take time to construct, are unsustainable, and expensive for Mindanao. Therefore the Department of Energy of Mindanao wants to promote the installation of more renewable power stations. The mandate adopted for this is to "Encourage private sector participation in energy resource development".

The final message was "halina't mag-RE na tayo!" (with Renewable Energy, we can!):

• Stop climate change
• Preserve the environment
• Achieve energy security and sufficiency
• Attain sustainable development
• Improve the quality of life for all.

For more information on the topic of energy in Mindanao visit the Department of Energy website: www.doe.gov.ph

Energy in EP home countries

Now a short overview of the energy situation in Finland, Germany, and the Netherlands.

Energy in Finland

Finland does not have many energy resources of its own, apart from forests which cover 78% of the land. However, there are no forests particularly for energy wood production but all energy that is harvested from the forests come from excess of forest industry. Whether straight from the logging sites or from the factories. But more on forest later. Finland relies heavily on nuclear energy and imported energy sources (mainly from Russia).

About Finland

Finland is located in northern Europe, neighboring countries include Sweden, Russia and Norway. Population rounds to 5,4 million people, and population density to 17,6 p/km2. (The Philippines 337p/km2). The conditions affecting Finland's energy need are the cold climate (four distinct seasons overall), long distances, industry that us heavily dependent on energy, and citizens' consumption habits. Industry uses 46%, transportation 16%, heating 12% and other 12% of total energy. 

Finland is the world's leading country in using forest energy. All excess material from forest industry (factories) is used in energy production, e.g. saw dust. Also excess material from main logging is being used, e.g. woodchips from branches and tops of trees. This is not used to its full potential and for example wood chip usage is expected to double until 2020.
Finland is dependent on Russia, 70% of imported energy come there. All natural gas and 90% of oil and coal is imported from Russia. Finland has secured 5 months' supply of fuel. Finland currently has two nuclear plants with 2 reactors in each. These were built in the 70s and are closing their last years in use. 2 reactors will be shut down 2018, another in 2027 and 2030. Third reactor in the other plant is being built and should be up and in commercial use in 2016. Another reactor is also planned and its main contractor has been chosen, surprisingly enough a Russian one. 

Peat is described as slowly renewable biomassfuel, although renewing takes 2000-3000 years. Lands containing peat are usually swamps or such damp areas, in Finland there is around 9 million hectares of lands containing it. Therefore its use is regional and it also releases a lot of CO2 emissions.

There are 220 water energy plants in Finland, which is essentially in full capacity. There are 211 wind turbines, and the number is rising. In the last year, wind energy production has gone up 56%. Finland also imports electricity, mainly from Sweden. Finland exports energy vice versa, for example Finnish electricity export to Estonia tripled last year.

Energy in Germany

First of all the presentation gave a brief overview on Germany concerning its location, size, inhabitants and energy consumption. After that the participants got insight on the current energy mix Germany is using to meet its energy consumption. With a third of total energy consumption oil is used most, followed by gas (around 20%) and coal (lignite and hard coal both around 12%). Renewable energies are covering 10% of Germany's energy consumption but it is aimed to cover 50% of total energy consumption with renewable sources by 2050. After presenting about the energy mix in general, the presentation went on about the different sources of energy in particular. Just like Finland Germany is very dependent on Russian imports of fossil fuels (oil, gas and hard coal). Due to a phase-out policy in 2011 after the Fukushima Dai-ichi incident, Germany's nuclear power plants are phasing-out until 2022. Renewable energies are supposed to substitute the electricity the nuclear power plants delivered but due to cheap hard coal and lignite on the world market energy utilities tend to use these fossil fuels to run their plants and produce electricity. To meet the goal of 50% of renewable energies by 2050 Germany uses several mechanisms to substitute renewable energy sources to enable them to compete with other sources of energy.

After finishing the part about the different sources, the audience was given a brief overview about electricity production in Germany and the European electricity transmission grids. A graph about the development of electricity production over the past 14 years showed that renewables were progressively increasing while nuclear power and others decreased.

Energy production in Germany today

Today (data from 2014) Germany uses renewable energies to produce 26% of its electricity. While lignite (25%) and hard coal (18%) also play a big role in electricity production, nuclear power decreased from approximately 30% in 2000 to 16% today. By 2022 0% will be produced by nuclear plants. The excursion about the European electricity transmission showed that most of countries in central Europe are connected via high current grids. This helps to improve further usage of renewable energies. Since renewable electricity and also energy production can't be scheduled and is fluctuating there might by times when Germany produces more or less electricity than needed. In those times the European grids are crucial to maintain grid stability and security of supply.

Energy in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands most of the energy is still supplied by means of fossil fuels. Only 4% of the total energy demand and 10% of the electricity demand are met by renewable resources. The main reason for the small contribution is the importance of the existing fossil fuel markets in the Netherlands. The largest natural gas field in the world is located in Groningen, the Netherlands. The harbor in Rotterdam is an important location for the import of crude oil and several multinationals have refineries located close to the harbor as well. The abundance of fossil fuels in the Netherlands has been an important part of the national economy for years and keeps energy prices low. This makes it difficult for renewable energy to compete without adequate policy.

Wind energy the most important source of renewable
electricity in 2014

Even so the amount of renewable electricity has been growing in the Netherlands, up to 10% in 2014 compared to just over 2% in 2000. The major sources used to generate renewable power in the Netherlands are wind power and biomass. To meet European demands of clean energy generation the Dutch government intends to more than double the amount of wind power on land in 2020 and increase the amount of wind power generated at sea almost 20 times by 2023. And even though solar energy does not contribute much to the electricity mix in the Netherlands, the amount of installed capacity is growing rapidly with more than twice the capacity installed in 2012 compared to 2011. With the increasing attention for renewable energy sources the Netherlands can hope to meet European standards in 2020 and continue its path towards becoming a more sustainable country.

Unplug research: Recommendations

Based on the research results each Unplug group made recommendations for the future of energy use and energy conservation in Mindanao. This post will provide a summary of the recommendations.

Many of the recommendations revolve around creating awareness about the benefits of energy conservation amongst the residents of Barangay Mintal. According to the research the topics that need attention include: using a fan instead of a air conditioner as often as possible, educate about the fact that electronic appliances on standby consume energy and it is more beneficial to unplug electronic devices when not in use, and replacing older refrigerators with newer, more energy efficient ones. The replacement of refrigerators requires an investment which might be a barrier for the generally poor households in Barangay Mintal. Therefore, to stimulate the replacement of old refrigerators or other outdated electronic appliances it would be beneficial for some financial incentives to be put into place.

One suggested option is that the local government can offer the residents interest-free or low interest loans for the replacement of old appliances. Another option is to organize an event “Change your old electrical device and get new one with discount” to lower the barrier for people to replace their old appliances. However, the most efficient way to stimulate energy conservation might simply be to create awareness amongst people that saving energy can also save them money. Most of the interviewees believe that electricity is expensive, so telling them that they can save money in the long run by investing in more energy efficient products might be a very effective strategy.

With many people using lights for 5 or more hours a day (some up to 24 hours a day!) the Liter of Light Project is a good option for greatly reducing the energy consumption. Since not everyone is familiar with the project and its benefits, more information and support has to be supplied for the successful expansion of the project. Demonstration projects may be the fastest way to reach people and increase the amount of Liter of Light installations.

Unplug Research: Actions

Another point introduced in the research was actions taken by people to save energy, as well as what they would be willing to do. The main driver behind energy saving habits is naturally the want to save money. And many people think they have already taken the steps possible for them.

According to the research, almost everyone turns off lights when leaving the house as well as unplugs tv and computer when they are not in use. This concerns 90% of the respondents. 80% turn off lights when leaving a room and unplug electronic devices. However, the EPs conducting the surveys express their concern about the answers while their own experience while visiting the neighborhood showed that this is not the case most of the time, or at least not as often as the answers claim. 

About two third of households use energy saving bulbs. But only 37% of respondents care about energy saving when purchasing new appliances. Not many people own air condition devices so a fan is much more common in air cooling. This is a positive aspect when it comes to energy saving. About half of the respondents boil only as much water as they need.

Below is a graphic showing respondents' different energy saving habits. (Click to enlarge!)

Unplug Research: Usage of electricity

The research done by previous cycles also included questions about what the people in Mindanao use electricity for, how much they pay for electricity per month and if their electricity bill correlates with their income. This post is about presenting the output of this part of the survey.

Payment for electricity and correlation between electricity bill and income

 The following graph shows the correlation between the income of a household and the spending on electricity. As expected people with the lowest income spend the least on electricity. At the same time people with more money tend to spend more money on electricity. The previous cycles linked the reason for this to the increasing number of electronic devices in richer households. The reason for the results of the ">50000 pesos per month" bracket is that there were only few people earning that much in the surveyed puroks.

 

 When it came to the question if electricity was considered expensive all of the surveyed puroks showed the same picture. The following diagram shows the answers for a representative purok.

  Even though those are the results for purok 2 of the Mintal barangay other puroks had an similar outcome. In average around 85 to 90% of the questioned people would agree or strongly agree with the statement "Electricity is Expensive". This is a very interesting result due to the fact that electricity rates in Mindanao are the cheapest in the whole Philippines. While people need to pay as much as 16 p/kWh in Luzon and other places, people in Mindanao only pay as much as 2,9 p/kWh. This shows that people living in the surveyed puroks weren't informed about the general situation of energy in Mindanao or the Philippines at all.

Electricity Usage

To find out if there are any potentials in saving electricity regarding the usage of electronic devices the previous cycles included questions about what the people used electricity for into their surveys. They asked about usage of light, air conditioning, fans, fridges and other devices such as TVs and computers of laptops. Many of the households use light more than 5 hours a day but there are also some that don't use light at all. Air conditioners, which usually consume a lot of electricity weren't as common as the electricity saving alternative: the fan. Again there are people not even using a fan but the majority used fans between 3-5 or more than 5 hours a day.

When it comes to other devices, many of the surveyed people used TVs and if they did, it was usually for a longer amount of time during the day. Here is the question if the people really watched television for that time or if it was just running while they did something else. Electricity consumption for television could be reduced a lot if people would only turn it on when they really used it. While many households had at least one TV, only few owned computers or laptops and usage was usually not as much as for the television. Also the radio was not that common and only used by a few people for more than 5 hours a day.

One of the biggest electricity consumer in households is the fridge. How many people owned a fridge varied from purok to purok. While in some only few more than 50% owned a fridge, up to 75% owned a fridge in other puroks. Unfortunately most of the households were owners of comparably old fridges that need a lot more electricity than newer and more efficient ones. Around half of the people would use the medium level of cooling temperatur while only few would use the high level. The rest claimed to use the least electricity consuming low level.

From the reports: "Energy conservation and the Liter of Light projects in Puroks 2 and 10 of Mintal Barangay", "Energy situation and energy conservation in Davao City, Barangay 28-C", "Research Paper Cycle 3", "Small effort big change: Energy crisis and energy saving in Mintal"