Tuesday, September 21, 2010

NEA will need P31B for rural electrification

By Amy R. Remo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:34:00 09/21/2010


STATE-OWNED National Electrification Administration (NEA) said it would need P31 billion to provide power to 31,000 sitios (sub-villages), or communities,nationwide.
During a House energy committee hearing held last Monday, NEA Administrator Edita S. Bueno said the plan was to give these sub-villages access to electricity over the next 10 years at an average cost of P1 million per sitio.
Of the 31,007 sub-villages that need access to electricity, 45 percent or 14,086 sub-villages are located in Mindanao; 27 percent or 8,205 are in the Visayas, and 28 percent or 8,716 are in Luzon.
These areas will be energized in three phases.
This year, NEA expects to energize 946 sub-villages and another 1,500 areas by 2011.
Over the medium term (2012 to 2015), 17,287 sub-villages will be energized. From 2016 to 2020, 11,274 sub-villages will benefit from the government’s rural electrification project.
So far, the government has already provided 69,179 sub-villages access to electricity. This figure represents 69 percent of 100,186 – the total number of sub-villages in the Philippines, Bueno said in her presentation.
NEA is currently sourcing funds for its rural electrification project from allocations it receives from the government. It also relies on the collection of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm), apart from tapping foreign loans.
Since the project’s inception, subsidies from the government have already amounted to P11.219 billion as of end-June this year.
Of this amount, the government’s regular subsidy for rural electrification already reached P6.045 billion.
NEA also secured P600 million through the Congressional Initiative Allocation, P823 million from the Priority Development Assistance fund, P500 million from the Calamity Assistance Rehabilitation Effort, P669 million from calamity grant, P180 million from Service Contract 38 Malampaya fund, and P2.402 billion from the Pantawid Kuryente-Katas ng Vat program.

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