DREAMS FOR RENEWAL ENERGY IN PALAWAN. Mylene Capongcol (2nd from left), OIC director of the Renewable Energy Management Bureau (REMB) and national project director of the DOE DREAMS; DOE Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella (3rd from left); Palawan Governor Jose Alvarez; and Titon Mitra, country director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) pose for a photo with the mayors of the five municipal pilot sites for DREAMS in Palawan after the signing of the MOU on November 28, 2018. (Photo courtesy of the Palawan Provincial Information Office)
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan -- The Palawan government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) here with the Department of Energy (DOE) for the “DREAMS” program, which seeks the mainstreaming and market sustainability of renewable energy.
DREAMS stands for “Development of a Renewable Energy Applications Mainstreaming and Market Sustainability.”
Palawan Governor Jose Alvarez signed the MOU on Wednesday with DOE Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella, DOE DREAMS national project director Mylene Capongcol, and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) country director Titon Mitra.
Fuentebella said DREAMS is a partnership project among the DOE, UNDP, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and five Palawan municipalities to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through the promotion and facilitation of commercialization of renewable energy (RE) markets.
“This is a way on how we can integrate responses to answer the energy needs of the province. What we have observed before in the past forums was that everyone has individual plans that were not integrated together. We should understand that we only need efficiency in energization. Let’s not waste our resources because this is for you,” he said in the local vernacular.
In Palawan, the DREAMS will be implemented in the towns of Cagayancillo, Aborlan, San Vicente, Brooke’s Point and Balabac. In the Philippines, its pilot sites are Palawan and Iloilo.
Fuentebella said the program is expected to help local government units (LGUs) provide power to 20,000 Filipinos, including Palawan residents, who live in off-grid areas in the country.
This will be achieved through four components: enforcement of a supportive policy and regulatory environment for leveraging investments in RE development and applications at the local level; strengthened institutional capacity that can lead to stepped-up RE investment; an increased share of RE-based power capacity; and enhanced RE projects and successful replication of proven and emerging technologies.
Fuentebella added that the DREAMS will assist the LGUs in planning their local energy initiatives so investors will visit their municipalities that have available power resources.
For his part, Governor Alvarez thanked the DOE and its partners for including Palawan and the five municipalities in the DREAMS program.
“We are very happy that Palawan is included in the implementation of this program. We have to capture energy to support the areas in the province. This is very promising and it will be able to increase the power capacity all over. No province will succeed without 24/7 power supply,” Alvarez said.
The program had been allocated the amount of USD44 million by the partners to be used to reduce the GHG with the commercialization of RE markets.
It started in 2017 and will be implemented until 2022 by linking the LGUs to RE developers, investors from the public and private sectors, and technical experts. (with reports from Aira Genesa Magdayao/PNA)
