Household electrification rate hits 92.96% in Oct. — DoE

By Angelica Y. Yang – January 14, 2021 | 7:46 pm
from Business World

THE household electrification rate was 92.96% as of October, equivalent to 23.23 million households with access to power, the Department of Energy (DoE) said, citing data from electric cooperatives and utilities.

The October total exceeds the 22.98 million with access to power identified in the 2015 census, the DoE said in its 37th Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) Implementation Status Report.

Households within distribution utility territories that do not have access to power as of October totaled 1.61 million.

The electrification levels of electric cooperatives (ECs); private investor-owned utilities or local government owned utilities; and Manila Electric Co. were at 89.19%, 97.08% and 100%, respectively.

The report, posted on the DoE’s website Thursday, highlighted action taken by the DoE and its agencies, the Energy Regulatory Commission, and private sector industries to comply with the EPIRA law between May and October.

In its previous EPIRA status report, the DoE estimated the household electrification rate at 91.25%.

Between May and October, the National Electrification Administration (NEA) disbursed P60.82 million worth of loans to ECs in Misamis Oriental, Masbate, Davao Del Norte and Surigao del Sur.

Last month, the NEA reported that more than 12,000 rural sitios still did not have access to power and that the agency would require more funding to meet the government’s 100% electrification target.

The NEA has said in a statement that the P1.6-billion allocation for sitio electrification — as provided for in the 2021 National Expenditures Program — will only cover 1,085 sitios.

In September, the NEA said that it needed P9 billion to achieve full electrification by next year.