Philippine pseudo-net-metering scheme double-charges customers

This is the paper I submitted to the Energy Policy and Development Program (EPDP) Conference 2016, which will be held January 12-13, 2016 in Manila.

I present in the paper what I believe are iron-clad arguments that the so-called “net-metering” being implemented today by Philippine electric utilities violates the Renewable Energy Act of 2008 and results in the double-charging of net-metered utility customers.

The full text of the paper may be downloaded here (Philippine pseudo-net-metering results in the double-charging of customers by RVerzola).

Roberto Verzola

Can micropower become as deep a game-changer as microprocessing?

This is the title of the speech I’m giving Jan. 8, 2016 at the annual meeting of the Geosciences and Reservoir Engineering Group of the Energy Development Corp. The title says it all.

Developments in the renewable energy field indicate that we are entering a period very much like the early period of microprocessing. The technologies are almost there but not quite. Lots of innovation is going on. Prices keep dropping yet production keeps rising, contrary to what conventional economics predicts. This was exactly what happened when integrated circuits were first introduced, which later led to the earliest microprocessors and solid-state memories. It was a matter of time, before the first microcomputer was designed and built with these new components. The rest, as they say, is history.

In this speech, I explore the possibility that micropower, or small-scale generation, also called distributed generation, can be as deep a game-changer as microprocessors. By deep, I mean changing the rules of the game not only within the industry, but in society as well.

My conclusion: To become a deep game-changer, the energy industry must find a way to scale down, not up, the power units in energy systems, enough to activate the economics of increasing returns to scale and trigger virtuous cycles of greater demand and lower prices.

The full text of the speech may be downloaded here (Can micropower be as deep a game-changer as microprocessing by RVerzola).