The government’s rural energization program has been plagued by multiple problems, resulting in more households having no electricity, according to Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla.
Unenergized households in the Philippines went up to 1.8 million from 800,000, Lotilla said during a Senate finance committee hearing on Friday.
Lotilla told the senators that the household electrification percentage based on the 2015 census was at 98 percent, but under the updated 2020 census, this went down to  96 percent.
Lotilla said that because the  electrification matrix was updated “this has actually in effect worsened the overall (electrification) based on the 2020 census.”
“The targets. When I was here [in the DOE] in 2005, 2006, if there is just one (electric) post in a barangay, it is considered energized,” Lotilla said.
“We are improving the metrics, such as how many are connected to the main center of the barangay, and we included the sitios down to the households [having access to electricity],” he added.
Lotilla said “population growth is a major factor” in the increase in unenergized households.
“The number of households is increasing, and we cannot cope up with it given the present budgetary limitations. We will try our best to look for other means, but an increase in the electrification budget would increase the rate of implementation of our electrification program,” the energy chief said.
Lotilla said distribution lines will also need to be strengthened amid the impact of recurring typhoons and other calamities.
“And even if we have generation sets, there are 40-year old distribution lines which cannot effectively deliver the electricity to the households. There are weak links in every subsector of the whole chain, and we have to do something to improve these subsectors,” he said.
Lotilla acknowledged that the government’s 2028 total electrification target was “definitely a more ambitious target.”
He said that DOE is not solely relying on the budget from the national government to achieve the total electrification target.
“By the end of this year…we are going to hold the auctions for the microgrids, over 300 areas in the country. This will be a big help and we hope to encourage the private sector and pick up the challenge in not only providing power to the unserved, but to increase the number of hour of services from 4 to 6 hours to more acceptable levels to 24 hours,” Lotilla said.