THE Department of Energy (DOE) is now preparing the road map to achieve 90-percent household electrification by 2017. The road map is envisioned in the Energy Reform Agenda that aims to provide energy access to more Filipinos.

The DOE said the road map will consist of strategies to address the policy, regulatory and institutional barriers to the country’s rural and missionary electrification program, which is aimed to fast-track the implementation of household-electrification activities by all proponents including the distribution utilities, electric cooperatives, the National Power Corp.-Small Power Utilities Group (Napocor-Spug), qualified third parties, and other service providers that employ decentralized options such as solar home systems and mini-grid, among others.

The government seeks to energize around 370,900 new household connections every year until 2017 to reach the 90-percent target.

The target, according to the DOE, will be achieved by using decentralized options such as the solar home systems.

As of June 30, the DOE said electrification levels stand at 83 percent or around 14.4 million households of the 17.4 million households in the country. Electrification levels in the franchise areas of the 119 electric cooperatives in the country stand at 75 percent, or 9,057,448 connections out of the 12,157,000 potential connections for the first semester of 2011.

The DOE said the road map is being crafted through the World Bank-assisted Rural Power Project (RPP) and will be a key action plan consisting of policy interventions, individual projects and investments to realize the household-electrification targets of the government through the participation of all stakeholders.

The DOE added that the road map is also consistent with the overall Ten-Point Action Program of the Aquino administration.

The RPP is also supporting other related activities such as the preparation of the Missionary Electrification Development Plan (MEDP) 2012-2017 and the ongoing World Bank-financed “Philippines: Output-based Aid For Energy Access Issues and Concerns.”

The DOE said the Missionary Electrification Development Plan aims to develop a unified national output-based support mechanism to enhance access of rural households to electricity in the country.

These final RPP initiatives are also expected to further sustain the government’s thrusts toward the total electrification of the country as enshrined in the Electric Power Reform Act of 2011.

The DOE said the road map for 90-percent household electrification by 2017 and the MEDP 2012-2017 will be completed by the end of this year.