NEA on track to achieving electrification goal

The National Electrification Administration (NEA) remains confident of achieving this year’s goal of bringing electricity to a total of 460,000 new consumers with more than half attained already as of June 30.

In the first six months of 2018, the 121 electric cooperatives under NEA’s supervision have energized a total of 260,224 new connections or 56 percent of the full-year target.

These new customers brought total connections to about 12.5 million or 83 percent of the 15 million potential customer connections for electric cooperatives.

Of the new connections set up in the first half of this year, cooperatives in Luzon had the biggest share with 106,898 or 41 percent of total.

Cooperatives in the Visayas had 69,784 (27 percent) and those in Mindanao had 83,542 (32 percent).

Last week, the NEA said it expected a 36-percent drop in its budget, at P1.16 billion in 2019 from this year’s P1.82 billion, even as a big chunk of rural households remained without access to power services.

NEA administrator Edgardo Masongsong said in a statement the agency would continue to push for rural electrification despite such budget constraints.

Masongsong said there were 19,740 sitios with 2.4 million households across the country that have yet to be reached by electricity services.

He said this year’s budget would allow the agency to reach only 1,817 sitios.

“We need more funds,” he said. “But despite all the challenges it faces, [NEA] has continued to make good progress in meeting its household electrification target.”

The government is aiming at achieving universal electrification by 2020.

In a related development, NEA said rural distribution networks frequently damaged in calamity-prone areas may see faster restoration now that a law creating a resiliency fund for rural cooperatives has been enacted. The NEA was referring to Republic Act No. 11039 or the Electricity Cooperative Resiliency Fund Law.