Household electrification level over 90 percent in Cebu, Central Visayas

Jose Rey Maleza, officer-in-charge of Department of Energy Visayas Field Office (DOE-VFO), says they could attain 100 percent household electrification level in the Visayas in 2020. CDN Digital photo | Irene R. Sino Cruz

CEBU CITY—The household electrification level in Cebu province has reached around 98 percent.

This was bared by Jose Rey Maleza, officer-in-charge of the Department of Energy Visayas Field Office (DOE-VFO).

According to the data from the DOE-VFO, 99.48 percent of the areas under the Visayan Electric has been served. Of the 489,073 households, 486,517 has been served.

For areas covered by Cebu Electric Cooperative I (Cebeco), 153,324 of the 153,764 total households, or 99.71 percent, have been served.

The household electrification level in areas under Cebeco II and III has reached 96.61 percent and 124.79 percent, respectively.

“We are now on the finish line of the total electrification project. So hopefully next year, we achieve 100 percent for the Visayas,” Maleza said.

The unserved households are located in mountainous areas,  which are sparsely populated, he added.

According to Maleza, Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia had indicated she wanted to fast track the electrification program in Cebu province. 

Under the Household Electrification program, the DOE-VFO implemented the solar home system installation in the Visayas.

The installed solar home system provided three units of the three-watt LED light, one unit of 1-watt LED light with built-in AM-FM radio and cellphone charger.

The household electrification program is the government’s energization of off-grid households using renewable energy technologies such as solar home system. /bmjo