Napocor sets bidding for 2 Bohol projects

National Power Corp. (Napocor) is bidding out the contract for the design, supply and installation of two 50-kilowatt solar-diesel hybrid system project for Balicasag and Cuaming islands in Bohol.

Napocor’s board has approved the project with a total budget of P56 million, and hopes boost the momentum of the state firm’s 2020 Missionary Electrification Plan.

Under the plan, 17 areas are programmed for a shift to hybrid power systems, eight of which are new areas with solar photovoltaic facilities that are equipped with batteries for power storage.

Balicasag and Cuaming—which are both tourist magnets and have less than 100 kw of peak demand—currently have round-the-clock power service through Napocor’s Small Power Utilities Group plants.

“[Napocor] has strengthened its plans on renewable energy development not only for sustainability measures but also to lower down the power rates in off-grid areas,” company president and chief executive Pio Benavidez said in a statement.

According to the United Nations, there are still 840 million people worldwide who have no access to electricity but countries need to do more if living without power would be eradicated by 2030.

In a report prepared in cooperation with the World Bank, International Renewable Energy Agency, International Energy Agency and World Health Organization, the United Nations said the world’s powerless population has shrank from 1.2 billion in 2010 and one billion in 2016.

But at such rate of progress, Sustainable Development Goal No. 7—pertaining to access to electricity for all by 2030—may not be met without sustained efforts.

Findings of the “Tracking SDG7: Energy Progress Report” show that if efforts flagged, there will still be 650 million people worldwide who will still live without electricity in 12 year’s time.

Of these people, nine out of 10 will be found in sub-Saharan Africa. But in the Philippines, according to the Department of Energy (DOE), there were close to 3 million households still without electricity as of the end of 2018.

Worldwide, the rate of electrification was now pegged at 89 percent. In the Philippines, DOE data show it was about 88 percent in terms of households.