DOE contributes 21 million to US-funded project in Mindanao  

US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney witnessed the unusual check turnover of the Philippine DOE to the US-funded AMORE Program. AMORE Chief Theresa Capellan receives the 21-million-peso check from Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla during the Corporate Social Responsibility Week celebration.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is infusing funds in the AMORE Program to electrify 21 off-grid barangays and complete the government’s agenda of full village electrification by 2008.  

Highlighting this year's celebration of Corporate Social Responsibility Week (July 5-7), the ceremonial turnover of the DOE funds to AMORE was dubbed as a unique and first-of-a-kind event because of the role reversal between the Philippine and US governments. Since 2002, USAID has provided funds to AMORE estimated at 18 million dollars. This time, however, DOE reciprocated and sealed the allocation of some P21 million government funds to AMORE by turning over the check for use in the electrification of an additional 21 off-grid barangays in Zamboanga del Norte and Sur with solar photovoltaic energy, or energy from sunlight.

DOE is intensifying its electrification efforts to meet the President’s 2007 target of total barangay electrification. Using the DOE’s market based approach to household electrification, the program seeks to integrate communities to the commercial suppliers, based on  the villages’ demand for electricity, and the individual’s capacity to pay. More specifically, the fund will support the installation of communal electrical facilities such as streetlights and the electrification of community centers like schools, community halls, mosques, drinking water systems, public calling offices, and health centers.

AMORE, which was launched four years ago, is considered a highly successful program for rural electrification because of its intensive social preparation, strong community organizing, capacity building initiatives for local associations, and creative financing schemes.

According to former Undersecretary and now AMORE Chief Theresa Cruz-Capellan, “Under the DOE's market-based approach, communities that were originally classified as unviable by electric cooperatives are transformed into creditworthy clients through AMORE’s effective organizing of the Barangay Renewable Energy and Community Development Associations, or BRECDAs.”

Capellan further said, “The collection of fees from the villages, used for both capital cost recovery as well as operations and maintenance of the solar panels, are as much as 70 percent. This rate is higher by cooperative standards. It also means that AMORE’s capacity building initiatives are paying off, making the off-grid communities viable, at the same time demonstrating the capacity of low-income households in Mindanao to pay for clean energy.”

The DOE-AMORE partnership hopes that the market-based approach to rural electrification, where private-sector participation is expected to intensify, will fast-track not only the Philippines' total barangay electrification agenda by 2008, but also 90% household electrification by 2017.

For the communities, Capellan added, “The entry of solar panels signals their freedom from darkness.  Above all, DOE assistance means the immediate delivery of socio-economic development to remote conflict areas in Mindanao, particularly access to safe water and improved education, through the installation of solar-powered water pumps and distance education equipment.”

In terms of industry development, a derived benefit from this DOE project is the expansion of the domestic market for solar household systems, and possibly the re-location of manufacturers and assemblers of solar panels. Such benefit would lessen the country’s dependence on the increasingly price-volatile imported fossil fuels, which are also believed to be responsible for climate change around the globe and the deterioration of air quality in cities.