DOE seeks P500 M budget for rural electrification plan

The Department of Energy (DOE) is asking for a budget of P500 million for its rural electrification program.

The budget sought makes up over a fifth of its total proposed budget of P2.3 billion next year.

DOE Secretary Alfonso Cusi said the P500 million would be used for outside projects being implemented by electric cooperatives (ECs) and also in remote areas and island provinces outside the reach of power coops.

“A significant portion of the budget is the implementation of government’s total electrification program which seeks the energization of the remaining unserved and underserved households nationwide,” he said.

As of the end of June, the Philippines’ electrification level reached 98.15 percent, or 22.6 million households with electricity. This means about 424,000 out of 22.98 million remain unserved households based on the 2015 census.

DOE data showed bulk of the unserved households are in Mindanao, which has an electrification level of 81.87 percent, followed by Visayas with 96 percent. Meanwhile, households in Luzon are fully electrified.

However, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian questioned the budget for electrification when the agency has yet to provide its concrete strategy on how it intends to provide reliable electricity service in unserved and underserved areas.

In previous hearings conducted by the Senate committee on energy, which Gatchalian chairs, the DOE was asked to submit its comprehensive strategy and rollout plan in pursuing the country’s total electrification agenda.

Cusi said the agency has already required all ECs to submit their masterplan on energizing their respective franchise areas and that they are now in the process of collating all the data.

However, the DOE chief said the ECs have yet to submit their report to the department.

“We are collating the masterplan that is made by the respective cooperatives. We are also rating now the cooperatives on how they are serving their franchise area,” Cusi said.