DOE reviews electrification target, hikes funding requirement to P100b

“This morning, we had a meeting with the President. And in the next cabinet sectoral meetings, we will be taking up the reviewing the total electrification program of the country,” Lotilla said.

Lotilla said that in the upcoming sectoral meeting, the DOE would discuss the total electrification program and its challenges.

“And since the President is approaching the midterm, it is a good time to review how realistic are both our targets and the funding available, and that we can think of ways to hasten or to make them more realistic,” the energy chief said.

Lotilla said the 2028 target is achievable, but it would require an average of P25 billion annually.

He said the average budget annually has been around P2 billion to P3 billion “and therefore we have a long way to go before we can achieve that goal.”

“So we are looking at ways and means in order to be able to achieve the total electrification goal,” he said.

“We’ll have to ask Congress to appropriate on a yearly basis, so we don’t know if there will be sufficient fund to support.”

Lotilla said once the total electrification is implemented, it will have returns amounting to P500 billion to the entire economy. “So it’s a huge investment, but it is also going to bring us huge returns,” he said.

The agency cited a 2010-2018 study, utilizing data from the Philippine Statistical Authority, Department of Health and the DOE showing a strong correlation between household electrification and economic growth.

The study showed that increasing household electricity access from 0 to 8 hours could boost income and expenditure by 17 percent; from 8 to 16 hours, by 33 percent; and from 16 to 24 hours, by 50 percent.

The study estimated the total annual economic contribution of increased electrification at P314 billion, or 1.8 percent of the country’s gross domestic product—more than sufficient to offset the estimated P100-billion cost of complete national electrification.