By Juzel L. Danganan
MANILA, Aug. 12 (PNA) – The National Electrification Administration (NEA) is targeting to energize 11.03 million households by September, according to NEA Administrator Edith Bueno.
”So we are targeting to attain 11 million connections by September at an average of 44,000 per month, as of the moment we had 10.8 million last June,” Bueno said in a press conference Tuesday.
For the year, she noted the connection rate was 44,000 per month from January to June. The total consumer connections was only at 10.63 million on December 2014.
Bueno said the average cost for connection is Php 6,726 or just a little over a hundred dollars.
Bueno also said that NEA eyed to energize 2,301 sitios during the third quarter and 4,583 sitios for the fourth quarter of 2015, with a target to accomplish it before the elections.
As of July 15, she said NEA has accomplished 79 percent of its Sitio Electrification Program (SEP) target areas with 25,557 sitios.
Bueno said the average cost per sitio is Php 580,000, cheaper than the earlier expenses of Php 870,000 per sitio.
For the barangay line enhancement, she reported that NEA has accomplished 59 percent of the target areas or 606 barangays, which has an initial target of 1,030 enhanced barangays. The program replaced the barangay’s dependence from generator sets or solar systems to the grid.
Bueno said the average cost for a barangay’s line enhancement is Php 700,800 down from Php 1.5 million. (PNA)