Senator calls for review of electrification program

THE government is far short of achieving its goal of achieving full electrification, with more than two million households remaining unserved, suggesting a need to review electrification strategy, a key legislator said.

Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian, who chairs the chambers’s energy committee, sought the review of the national electrification program in a resolution.

“We want to check on the status of electrification to assess and possibly revise the national electrification strategy,” he said in a statement after filing Senate Resolution No. 695.

The assessment will be helpful in “achieving total electrification for the welfare of the Filipino people and the development of the nation,” he added.

He said the government currently pursues its electrification agenda via grid extension by electric cooperatives, which is carried out by the National Electrification Administration; missionary electrification in off-grid areas, handled by the National Power Corp.; and the entry of qualified third parties in remote and unviable areas.

These methods are subsidized either through government appropriations or pass-on charges to consumers through the universal charge for missionary electrification, he said.

Mr. Gatchalian said from 2016 to 2018, the government earmarked P5.45 billion for sitio electrification and P3.97 billion for the supply of electricity in missionary areas. Apart from these funds, around P73 billion has been remitted from the universal charge for missionary electrification collection as of end-2017.

However, despite its efforts, the government has yet to connect a total of 2,399,108 households to the power grid, or around 16% of the country’s households.

The majority of the unserved homes are found in Mindanao at 1,345,116, he said. Luzon and the Visayas account for 529,952 and 524,040 households, respectively.

“It is necessary to review the national electrification project of the government by identifying which communities are economically viable for grid extension, how much government appropriations are necessary to complete the extension, and in how long the construction can be accomplished,” Mr. Gatchalian said.

“It is likewise important to know which communities are best for off-grid electrification, what technologies are suitable for them, and how fast the entry of qualified third parties in the remote and unviable areas can be facilitated,” he added. —