A total of 62 households in the underserved community of Barangay San Isidaro has been installed with batteries, providing an all-day electricity to residents

THE National Electrification Administration (NEA) announced that it has completed a P2 million electrification project in an off-grid island in Busuanga, Palawan.

In a statement last week, NEA said a total of 62 households in the underserved community of Barangay San Isidaro has been installed with batteries, providing all-day electricity to residents.

The pilot project took five months to complete from documentation to the installation of solar panels and batteries.

Aside from basic lighting and mobile phone charging purposes, the smart technology also allows capacity sharing or to draw extra power from other solar home systems that can be used in other household appliances.

NEA Administrator Edgardo Masongsong said that while the NEA has made significant strides in bringing power to rural and remote areas across the country since 1969, the task of lighting up the “last mile” households remains a challenge.

“We really welcome any effort to realize total electrification because we believe that with electrification, there will be economic and social development,” he said.

However, latest NEA data show there are still 14,876 sitios across the country that have no access to electricity. To complete the energization of these remaining sitios by 2022, the agency will need approximately P22 billion in funding.

“Rural electrification is not about electrifying the farthest areas, it is not about energizing the last household. It is about rural development. If we will not be able to realize rural development through electrification, then rural electrification as a program is a failure,” Masongsong said.

NEA said the project was completed in partnership with the Association of Isolated Electric Cooperatives, Inc., Island Light and Water Energy Development Corp., One Renewable Energy Enterprise Inc., Okra, Infunde Development and Infranco Asia.