Electric cooperatives with an electrification level of 74 percent and below as of 2015 will receive the bulk of its allocation next year.

THE National Electrification Administration (NEA) will prioritize the allocation of its 2020 budget to energize areas with the lowest electrification rate.

The measure is part of the government’s efforts to make the country fully energized by 2022, the NEA said.

In a statement over the weekend, NEA Administrator Edgardo Masongsong said the agency proposed P1.16 billion for the continuation of the Sitio Electrification Program (SEP) next year, which is expected to benefit a total of 775 sitios across the country.

To determine the priority areas, Masongsong said electric cooperatives with an electrification level of 74 percent and below as of 2015 will receive the bulk of its allocation next year. Those with 95 percent energization level will be given least priority.

The NEA chief said other criteria factored in are power cooperatives with problems on peace and order, financial liquidity, and those classified as “medium” and below.

Electric cooperatives to be prioritized for the 2020 budget will be required to scout for potential investors for joint venture, international or local grants and programs, utilize their internally-generated funds or include in capital expenditure project application to the Energy Regulatory Commission.

“All other electric cooperatives which do not fall on the two categories shall be allotted with funding according to the degree of impact to the level of energization and least cost,” Masongsong said.

He also noted that of the P34.375 billion worth of government subsidies released to the ECs from 2011 to 2019, a total of P31.55 billion were already liquidated and only P2.825 billion remained unliquidated.

Of the remaining unliquidated subsidy releases, the below one-year unliquidated amount is at P2.24 billion, the one-year unliquidated is P237 million, and the above one-year unliquidated is P344 million.

“The P2.2 billion are ongoing projects. Savings as a result of refunds by (power cooperatives) are being reallocated to other [cooperatives] with low energization level. This is one of our strategies,” he said.

The NEA, based on the 2020 NEP, is allocated P14.15-billion corporate operating budget. Of the amount, P1.75 billion will be financed by the NEA’s internally generated funds, while P1.53 billion as subsidy from the national government (NG), and the remaining P10.87 billion represents non-cash subsidy for the conversion of NG advances.

The proposed budget will allow the agency to meet its other targets for 2020, which include electrification of 38 local government unit/non-government organizations resettlement sites, and provision’s for the cost counterpart of the Government of the Philippines on Japan International Cooperation Agency donation for power cooperatives in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.