EDC president Sergio Apostol said funding and technical assistance for the project has been approved by the New Zealand government through the Asia Development Assistant Facility (ADAF).
Under the ADAF, EDC will be provided the wind turbine equipment and technical expertise through Empower Consultant Ltd., a New Zealand-based group the specializes in hybrid new and renewable energy (NRE) systems.
Apostol said the 10-20 kilowatt facility, which will serve as a model for an off-grid, wind-diesel generation system, will light up 170 households in Barangay Malaguicay, a remote village 70.5 kilometers from the provincial capital.
EDC, which will provide the distribution lines, manpower requirements and logistical support, said the facility will also provide some benchmarks for social and environmental issues that may arise with such hybrid systems.
According to Apostol, the project is in line with the government’s twin goals of accelerating rural electrification and promoting the use of NRE sources.
"Many of the unenergized barangays are either isolated or are in the hinterlands and cannot be reached by the grid system, but they need and serve the electricity just the same," Apostol said. "The communities need stand alone power units that can provide them reliable and affordable power."
The EDC chief said the hybrid wind-diesel facility,which will be ready by 2003, will not only mean uninterrupted power supply for the barangay but will also reduce the cost of power generation since it will use less of the expensive diesel. If viable, the hybrid system can be replicated in other remote villages.
A report from the Department of Energy (DOE) showed that about 16 percent of the barangays or around 6,700 rural barangays remain unenergized.
The DOE report also said that the off-grid barangays are usually dependent on diesel-fueled generators, which deliver only four hours of electricity daily.