MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Energy (DOE) is now preparing a “roadmap” to achieve 90-percent household electrification by 2017, which is in line with the Energy Reform Agenda.
The roadmap will address the policy, regulatory and institutional barriers to the country’s rural and missionary electrification program, which is envisioned to fasttrack the implementation of household electrification activities by all proponents.
These proponents include the distribution utilities (DUs), electric cooperatives, the small power utilities group (SPUG) of the National Power Corp. (Napocor), qualified third parties, and other service providers that employ decentralized options such as solar home systems and mini-grid, among others.
To hit the target, government must energize around 370,900 new household every year until 2017 of which around one million households are expected to be “electrified” using decentralized options such as the solar home systems.
This is to improve the electrification level of the country, which stands at 83 percent, or roughly 14.4 million households of the total 1.74 million households as of end June 2011.
Electrification level in the franchise areas of the 119 electric cooperatives in country, meanwhile, stands at 75 percent or 9,057,448 connections out of the 12,157,000 potential connections for the first semester of 2011.
Through the World Bank-assisted Rural Power Project (RPP), the roadmap will be a key action plan consisting of the policy interventions, individual projects and investments.
The said roadmap is also consistent with the overall 10-Point Action Program of the Aquino government.