Nobody wants power outages. I think we all can agree that everyone is better off if we can avoid it altogether.

Just ask anyone from Panay Island. During the four-day power outage they experienced early this year, some residents slept outside in the streets to keep cool, classes were suspended, and the local economies incurred billions in economic losses.

Contemplating our past experiences of blackouts, the job of the electrical power sector — from generation, transmission, to distribution — becomes clear: it is to maintain and coordinate multiple facilities in the best way possible. But another layer of complexity is afoot. The sector also has to explore ways for the Philippines to transition to a more sustainable, yet still reliable and affordable power mix.

Make no mistake about it. It should be a mix — a system that doesn’t rely on one single type of energy source. Even if renewables have become cheaper over the years, there is practicality in not putting all our eggs in one basket. After all, variable renewable energy sources like solar and wind aren’t capable of consistently catering to a 24-hour load profile. And as we’ve seen during this year’s El Niño, hydropower plants had to go on a timeout.

The cost of intermittency is high. The cost of maintaining a reliable grid is also high. And I would argue that the cost of having no electricity is ultimately worse.

So, for energy security to work, it really has to be a teamwork between what is currently available, what can be feasibly scaled and developed, and other emerging technologies.

Let’s also not lose sight of the fact that the Philippines is still a developing country, concerned with making its economy more resilient and competitive. Its resources are stretched enough as it is, with other societal investments in poverty alleviation, food security, infrastructure, climate change resilience, etc., which are all equally important to attaining human prosperity. These developments are all underpinned by a reliable and secure energy system, which the Philippines should establish first. With respect to the energy transition, the country should be on its own transition pathway and timeline.

UP College of Engineering associate dean professor Rowaldo Del Mundo, whom I had a dialogue with during Rappler’s “Powering Up” roundtable discussion, said in the vernacular: “Electricity is the backbone of our economy, so if it is not secure, then our economy will be the same. But energy security isn’t just about if there is sufficient supply. Ingrained in the definition of ‘security’ is whether or not electricity is affordable to the end-user.”

In the same roundtable discussion, I also spoke with Department of Energy Undersecretary Felix Fuentebella. I agreed with him that energy efficiency — or understanding our consumption patterns and reducing waste — should be the economy’s first fuel. He is also right to point out that we should take advantage of the indigenous renewable energy sources readily available to us “to be added on to our conventional fleet.”

Indeed, energy security must be established to enable human development first and foremost. There cannot be an affordable nor a sustainable energy system without having sufficient, reliable, and dependable energy to begin with. We are dealing with moving targets as electricity demand continues to rise every year and we continue to grapple with our own complicated geographical and political economic contexts.

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With all these considerations in mind, I look forward to more conversations with experts and thought leaders, especially amidst technological shifts and more pronounced vulnerabilities in the power system. Really, there is still much to talk about.

Stay tuned for the next Rappler roundtable discussion on the Philippine energy sector to be moderated by yours truly and tackling industry regulation and how that can be attuned to obtain energy security. We hope to generate more understanding among our kababayans about this interesting, albeit complex, sector and guide them in making their own opinions and actions. – Rappler.com

Ruth Yu-Owen is the Energy Committee chairperson of the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines.