By Anne S. Tiangco Contributor The power situation in the country remains dark with 2.4 million households still without electricity. Even in the beautiful province of Palawan, known as a prime tourist destination, rotational power interruption that lasts up to 8 hours is experienced on a regular basis.  The power situation in Palawan has gone so bad that even President Duterte, in his recent visit to the province, expressed his dismay and gave the local government and the local energy cooperative until the end of the year to fix the problem. But there are five small fishing villages located in the remote areas of the province, predominantly occupied by indigenous people, that enjoy uninterrupted power supply. These five villages enjoy the zero brownout privilege using different power source combinations: wind turbine, solar power and a standby generator, thanks to the Save, Invest, Nurture Access to Green Energy and Technologies (SINAG), the Access to Energy (A2E) program of Pilipinas Shell Foundation, Inc. (PSFI ). Last 2014, PSFI embarked on a mission to power up communities in Palawan that are off-the-grid and are not likely to be provided with power within the next 10 years. They identified the areas which has existing natural resources for power generation and secured the commitment of the communities to sustain the project. Global Shell commissioned the global advisory company Enclude to develop a toolkit to assess the energy needs of Kalakuasan and identify sustainable potential interventions.  Kalakuasan is a remote village in Puerto Princesa which is home of the Batak tribe and has since become the pilot area for PSFI’s SINAG A2E. Palawan is intrinsic to PSFI as the Malampaya gas field operated by Shell Phlippines Exploration B.V. is in the northwest part of the province. PSFI Program Manager  Marvi Rebueno-Trudeau said that they choose communities based on several factors. “One is if the community is vulnerable and not in the priority list for electrification within the next 5-10 years. We also choose fishing communities where there are mostly IP residents and communities who commit to sustaining the project,” Rebueno-Trudeau said. “These are communities who only had lights from kerosene lamps, who used to drink water from open pits, who used to pay for borrowed electricity for only four hours every single day,” she adds. So far, PSFI has powered up Sitios Binaluan, Batak, Baras, Ligad and Decabaitot with grid and micro-grid projects that provide electricity and potable water supply to thousands of beneficiaris. Apart from the micro-grid projects, PSFI also provides individual solar home systems and in Sitio Logpan, for example, the first-ever SINAG kiosk was put up which may look like your ordinary sari-sari store but is actually now a source of livelihood for the community. It provides access to energy and potable water using solar energy. It is also a charging station for mobile phones, a spot for cooking, buying cold drinks, even ice cream.  More importantly, it has become the hub for socializing within the community as they gather here to watch their favorite shows in the modest-sized tv set. PSFI’s SINAG project has impacted not just the lifestyle but the economics of these tribal communities. In Sito Binaloan, boat maker Nardo Montilla, 43, said that when they still did not have electricity, he could only finish one boat for two months. But now that he has power tools to help him, he can finish a boat in as fast as 2 weeks. Fishermen who comprise more than 60% of the population now have ice to keep their daily catch fresh. Housewives have also become entrepreneurs, selling anything from cold beverages, ice, to frozen food. For city people, these developments maybe trivial but for these tribal communities that are now enjoying access to energy, this is life-changing.