Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said Sunday the government’s electrification program should be unified to expedite household energization in rural communities.
“It’s deplorable that in this time and age, over one million rural households in the country are not able to reap the many benefits of electrification,” Gatchalian said.
The National Electrification Administration is undertaking household electrification through the Sitio Electrification Program, while the Department of Energy has the Total Electrification Project.
Gatchalian, vice chairman of the Senate committee on energy, said the DOE still downloads the money to NEA and the National Power Corp., making the process longer.
“There has to be a clear policy on which agency is responsible for pursuing rural electrification, and that is why we need to harmonize all existing programs for electrification,” he said.
He said the total electrification of all households in the country remained unfulfilled despite various electrification programs undertaken over the past decades.
Based on the DOE data, the national household electrification level was only at 95.56 percent as of March.
The electrification rate in Luzon stood at 98.71 percent, the Visayas at 96.97 percent and Mindanao at 86.39 percent.
Gatchalian said this was due to the low electrification level of electric cooperatives.
Most households without electricity are in Basilan, Lanao del Sur and Sulu provinces.
“The DOE’s utilization of the funds for rural electrification is very low,” Gatchalian said.
He pushed for the Microgrid Systems Act to accelerate the electrification of underserved and unserved areas in the country.
The law, which was enacted in January, seeks to promote the use of microgrid systems and the provision of quality, reliable and secure electricity service at reasonable rates in unserved areas or those with no electricity access and underserved areas which are served by distribution utilities whose supply is less than 24 hours daily.