Unified electrification programs pushed

MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker is pushing for a unified program to expedite the electrification of all households, particularly in rural communities.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy, said the electrification of households nationwide is being undertaken by the National Electrification Administration (NEA) through its sitio electrification program and the Department of Energy (DOE) through its total electrification project.

However, he said the DOE still downloads the money to NEA and to the National Power Corp. (Napocor).

“There has to be a clear policy on which agency is responsible in pursuing rural electrification, and that is why we need to harmonize all existing programs for electrification,” Gatchalian said.

“What is happening now is the DOE still downloads the budget for NEA and Napocor, which slows the process,” he noted.

Gatchalian said despite various electrification programs undertaken over the past decades, total electrification of all households in the country remains unfulfilled.

Data from the DOE showed that household electrification level stood at 95.56 percent as of March this year.

Electrification rate in Luzon stands at 98.71 percent and in the Visayas at 96.97 percent.

In Mindanao, however, electrification rate is only at 86.39 percent due to the low electrification level of electric cooperatives.

Most households without electricity are located in Basilan, Lanao del Sur and Sulu provinces.

“It’s deplorable that in this time and age, over one million rural households in the country are not able to reap the many benefits of electrification,” Gatchalian said.

He said the DOE’s utilization of its budget for electrification is very low.

Citing the DOE’s data on the total electrification project fund utilization rate, Gatchalian said that from the disbursement rate of 0.62 percent in 2021 to 96.62 percent as of August 2022, the obligation rate of the electrification budget went down from last year’s 83.56 percent to 0.33 percent as of August.

Gatchalian said one of the reasons why he pushed for the Microgrid Systems Act is to accelerate the electrification of underserved and unserved areas in the country.

Enacted into law last January, the law seeks to promote the use of microgrid systems and the provision of quality, reliable, and secure electricity service at reasonable rates in unserved areas or those with no electricity access and underserved areas which are currently served by distribution utilities whose supply is less than 24 hours daily.