Sustainability in Energy Planning: A Case Study in the Philippines

Abstract

This research paper is a descriptive design study of the sustainability of the energy planning in the Philippines. As a very important tool in achieving sustainable development, the social, economic and environmental dimension of sustainability must be integrated in the energy planning process. By using the available energy indicators for sustainable development developed by the International Energy Agency (IEA), this paper tried to keep track and measure the progress of the countries‟ national energy system, that will help evaluate its performance and identify effective and appropriate policies to achieve the country‟s sustainable development goals. For the purpose of possibly adopting successful strategies in promoting sustainability that are being implemented in the developed countries such as Korea, the trend or the historical performance of the energy indicators for both countries were measured and the result identified several gaps mostly on economic dimension of development and a discussion for the possible reasons behind the huge gap was presented. The comparison helps identify the Philippines‟ energy planning‟s strengths and weaknesses and the factors that hampers the slow development of the country. The performance of the Philippine energy systems covering the period 1973 – 2014 for the three dimensions was measured, not only in comparison with Korea‟s energy indicators as a developed country but likewise with the energy indicators of the equally developing countries in the Association of South East Asian (ASEAN) region. The comparison helps identify the level of integration of these energy indicators into the current energy planning process and helps assist energy planners to formulate appropriate policies in promoting sustainable development. Another way of assessing the level of integration is comparing the existing Philippine energy plan with Korea Energy Masterplan brief summary of the similarities and distinctions of the two energy plans was presented that helps identify the common indicators mostly used and integrated in the current energy planning process. Finally, to achieve the sustainable energy development objectives, that is to realize a sustainable energy planning for the Philippines, several policy recommendations and suggestions were presented that will help pave a way for the possible integration of all those defined unavailable energy indicators. The assessment of the trend and the result of the study will likewise help and assist the government in reviewing the effectiveness of policies undertaken and formulate appropriate strategies to achieve its goals and objectives.