VECO Urges Consumers to Use Solar Energy

(PNA) — The Visayan Electric Company (Veco), Metro Cebu’s lone power utility, has urged its customers to install solar panels in their individual homes or companies.

“We are encouraging our customers to avail on this. They can save on their electricity bill and help the environment as well,” Sebastian Lacson, Veco chief operating officer, said.

Lacson said about 200 customers have so far manifested their intent to put up solar panels in their respective households, but only four have been installed.

A solar panel that can generate one kilowatt hour (1kWh) costs around Php150,000 including the installation.

Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla, in his message on the New Metering Reference Guide said the country can harness the sun’s power as its radiation across the country has a power generation of 4.5 to 5.5 kWh per square meter per day.

He said that on every grid, a household or company can utilize the power of the sun with solar panels on their own roofs, which paves the way to the introduction of the net-metering scheme.

The scheme, Petilla said, represents the first step of a paradigm shift from the traditional generation-transmission-distribution scheme towards individual and community-based distributed on-site power generation.

Net-metering is the first non-fiscal incentive mechanism fully implemented under the Renewable Energy Act of 2008.

Through the installation of solar photovoltaic panels up to 100kW, house owners and commercial establishments can now partly satisfy their electricity demand by themselves.

Petilla said the end users can also help mitigate the effects of climate change through the use of clean energy technologies and contribute in lessening the country’s dependence on costly imported fossil fuels. (PNA) JBP/EB