To fulfill the President’s mandate for the country’s full electrification during his term, the Department of Energy (DOE) is scheduling within this quarter the first competitive selection process (CSP) or auction for the investors being enticed to energize more than 15,000 households along the country’s unserved and underserved areas at microgrid domains.

“CSP will be scheduled within the fourth quarter of 2023 while the awarding is targeted by the first quarter of 2024…a total of 15,645 households are expected to benefit from this initial auction,” the department has announced.

The agency apprised the targeted Microgrid Service Provider (MGSP) that the scheduled bidding “will cover 98 unserved areas and underserved areas clustered into 49 lots located in remote areas of the country.”

The DOE conveyed that the key parameters include “providing 24/7 electrification, incorporating at least 35 percent renewable energy, and offering the least cost solution for the identified area.”

In line with the State-underpinned energization paradigm, the energy department has issued the National Total Electrification Roadmap (NTER) that will potentially entice capital flow for electrification projects, particularly the unserved and underserved sites at off-grid domains or those that are not physically connected to the main power grids.

According to the framework released by the department, these unserved and underserved areas will be “prioritized for tender to private sector investments through a CSP,” which shall be in keeping with the prescriptions of the Microgrid Systems Act or Republic Act 11646.

‘Unserved area’ would refer to a place or jurisdiction that has no access to electricity, no distribution system lines, no home power systems and no connection to any microgrid system.

Correspondingly, underserved areas are those that already have electricity connection, distribution lines and home power systems but the supply of electricity is still not sustained on round-the-clock basis.

Citing provisions of the Microgrid law, the energy department has directed “the conduct of a CSP before a micro grid system provider can serve off-grid areas.”

In compliance with the law, the energy department similarly instructed distribution utilities “to submit their local total electrification roadmaps and list of underserved areas.”

The government-underpinned electrification program for the off-grid domains as well as far-flung areas of the country is part of the mandate laid down by the President in his recent State of the Nation Address.

By DOE’s estimate, the electrification goal to be pursued under the current administration will likely cover 3.7 million households, and of that, 2.7 million “are within the franchise areas of the electric cooperatives (ECs) requiring different electrification strategies, rationalized government subsidy and innovative implementation schemes.”

The department expounded that “1.3 million of these households are located in areas that are not yet connected to the distribution and transmission systems, thus requiring alternative solutions.”

For the targeted auction, the DOE sounded off its commitment to a “transparent, fair, and competitive selection process in choosing winning MGSPs capable of efficiently and effectively carrying out electrification in these areas.”