NEA surpasses rural electrification target for last year

MANILA, Philippines - The National Electrification Administration (NEA) and the country’s 110 electric cooperatives (ECs) have completed the rural electrification program for 6,163 villages or far-flung areas in 2012.

This the agency said, was higher than the target of 6,007 for last year.

Of the completed villages, 5,704 or 92 percent are already energized. For the rest of the areas, distribution lines are in already in place and awaiting pre-connection requirements from the respective households.

Some 53,688 households or 268,440 Filipinos have initially benefitted from the project, NEA said.

The cost of energizing a village is roughly P575, 000, NEA also said.

NEA administrator Editha Bueno said with the electrification program, the agency hopes to make education and health services more accessible in the rural areas.

“The success of electrification program is determined primarily by the lives of the beneficiaries that have improved, the economic activities that emerged and the advancement in education and health services in the rural areas made possible by the availability of electric service,” she said.

In 2012, NEA received P4.053 billion from the National Government which was released by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) in four tranches

This amount covers 6,451 villages with a total project cost of P3.711 billion due to be completed and energized.

NEA is a government owned-and-controlled corporation mandated to carry out total electrification on an area coverage basis, through its implementing arms, the electric cooperatives.

In order to ensure the attainment of its electrification target, NEA organized a series of regional workshop-meetings attended by members of the board of directors, general managers and implementing staff of the participating ECs, wherein overall implementation plan and compliance to NEA policies and COA rules were discussed.

The agency will also utilize the accredited regional technical evaluators (RTEs) for project evaluation.  These evaluators undertook seminar-workshops and passed the examinations specifically designed to upgrade and evaluate their skills for the purpose.