More areas to benefit electrification program

CEBU, Philippines - In its hope to provide electricity to more areas in its franchise area, the Visayan Electric Company disclosed that it will implement its second batch of the rural electrification program next month.

 Eric Ching, VECO community relations manager, said that for the second batch, some sitios in the towns Minglanilla, Consolacion, San Fernando and Cebu City will be provided with electricity.

“Our aim is to ‘electrify’ all sitios within our franchise area by 2017,” said Ching.

 The Department of Energy, in cooperation with VECO, launched the rural electrification program last year in Naga City, Cebu where 22 sitios were part of the first batch to be provided with electricity.

Ching said that for the first batch, DOE released P12 million and P24 million for the second batch.

The said program was proposed by VECO to DOE which approved it while the former implements the program, explained Ching.

  Pursuant to Energy Regulation 1-94 (as amended) and corroborated by Section 66 of Republic Act 9136, power generating companies are to provide financial benefits to its host communities by setting aside one centavo per kilowatt hour (P0.01/kwh) of its total electricity sales to fund electrification  development and livelihood  reforestation, watershed management, and health and environmental projects.

VECO, in an earlier statement, said that electrification projects are to be regularly initiated by the distribution utility or cooperative.

The host communities entitled to avail of the program are barangays, municipalities, cities, provinces and regions through the Regional Development Council. (FREEMAN)