According to the Department of Energy, the household electrification rate was 92.96% as of 2019. With the target of the Philippine government to reach 100% household electrification by 2022, there is a need to understand where the country currently stands in its electrification efforts. This subsection discusses the underserved and unserved households from the Department of Energy and other agencies, define what it means to be under these two categories, analyze how these data are gathered and presented, and how it affects reaching the electrification target.
Characterizing Served, Unserved, and Underserved
Energy access used to be defined as whether a household has access to electricity or not[1]. If for as long as one light bulb is electrified in a home, it already counts as an electrified household. In the Philippines, this is defined as “served” area. In contrast, those without access to electricity are called “unserved”. For those without continuous 24-hour access, they are classified as “underserved”.
Officially, in the DOE circular No. DC2019-11-0015, unserved area refers to an area with no electricity access, distribution system lines, individual home system or connection to any microgrid system. Underserved area refers to an area where electricity services are less than twenty-four (24) hours daily which is currently served by individual home system, microgrid system or distribution facilities because of non-implementation of applied capital expense projects, non-compliance with the service parameters of the Philippine Distribution Code, or any other reason, resulting to an overall failing mark based on the latest annual technical evaluation of performance of distribution system in relation to ERC’s imposed targets.[2]
- [1] UN GTF
- [2] DOE, Department Circular No. DC2019-11-0015 https://www.doe.gov.ph/sites/default/files/pdf/issuances/dc2019-11-0015_0.PDF