Page 18 - Reimagine-another power is possible.cdr

St. Anthony's College on Panay Island Father Edione Febrero, St. Anthony's
had a dilemma. College President, said. “It would have
made our bills even bigger and we
The Catholic school in Antique didn't want that at all.”
province, located more than 500
kilometers southwest of Manila, As things stood, the school was already
w a n t e d t o i n s t a l l a d d i t i o n a l struggling to keep energy costs down.
airconditioners in its facilities. To cut consumption, authorities were

prompted to close its library and
Students requested them, teachers audiovisual room during weekends.
needed them, and the school ofcials Management also limited students'
themselves saw the installation of
access to its computer laboratories.
aircon units as necessary. Everyone felt
that they could use a little bit of cool in In one way or the other, the high costs
their part of the world, literally, if not of electricity affected the learning
guratively. A fter all, warmer
opportunities of the school's 4,164
temperatures took their toll on
students and teachers alike: it made students and the productivity of its 215
learning less enjoyable and productive employees.
than it should be.
However, the huge electric bill wasn't
the only thing that held back the
The school, which occupied ve
hectares of land, could easily acquire school's move to acquire more
additional airconditioning sets. The airconditioners.
catch, however, was their electricity
costs would skyrocket once the units St. Anthony's College was more
were operational. concerned about the source of energy
itself. And Antique, just like Manila
“We wanted to add airconditioning and the rest of the country, remained
units but we could not afford to,” mostly dependent on coal.

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