MANILA, Philippines — State-run National Electrification Administration (NEA) recorded 93,324 new consumer connections in the first two months or 20 percent of full year 2018 target.
This brings the overall level of energization at 12,279,816.
Of the new connections, 34,580 are located in Mindanao, 34,356 in Luzon, and 24,388 in Visayas.
However, NEA administrator Edgardo Masongsong said there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to close the electricity access gap in rural and remote communities.
“While we put a lot of premium on member-consumer-owners and the promotion of their rights as electricity end-users, we remain steadfast in overturning the vicious poverty trend in unserved communities, especially in Mindanao, via electrification with the partnership of electric cooperatives,” he said.
The NEA chief said there are 19,740 sitios that remain without electricity, majority of which are in Mindanao (8,535), followed by Luzon (6,541), and Visayas (4,664).
Masongsong said the agency needs at least P25 billion to fully implement the rural electrification program before President Duterte’s term ends, noting that the average cost to energize a sitio is P1.4 million.
He said most of the unenergized sitios are located in far-flung and isolated areas, which are harder to reach.
Masongsong also cited difficult terrain, right-of-way issues, unstable peace and order conditions in some areas, natural calamities, and administrative constraints as key challenges in the implementation of rural electrification.
Thus, NEA proposed a set of measures to achieve its target of 100 percent electrification.