Demystifying the authentic attributes of electricity-

poor populations: The electrification landscape of

rural off-grid island communities in the Philippines
Jenalyn Flores
Student, Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering
Visayas State University
Baybay City, Philippines
E-mail address: floresjenalyn03@gmail.com

I. Summary II. Insight

The paper focuses on energy which is
the inadequate supply of electrical or
deprivation of adequate, affordable, reliable,
safe, and sustainable access to electricity in
off-grid areas such as Cobrador, Pangan-an,
and Gilutongan (Lazano-Taboada, 2020).
These three small islands are located far from
the mainland or main grid. Cobrador Island is
part of Romblon which has a distance of two
small islands from Romblon mainland.
Pangan-an and Gilutongan Islands are part of
Cebu and also have a particular distance from
its mainland, wherein Pangan-an has a
distance of 19.9 km from Cebu while
Gilutongan has a distance of 16.5 km and the
distance between Pangan-an and Gilutongan
is 5.7 km (Source: Google Map).
For the reason that these three small
islands are considered off the grid and has
become the respondent of the study, this
paper shows an authentic and more pragmatic
approach to determine household electricity
deprivation considering some attributes
(LazanoTaboada, 2020). It also conveys how
the study determines the factors affecting in
having energy poverty in off-the-grid areas, it
gives rise to its potential impact on rural
electrification and some recommended
measure to be taken care of (Lazano-
Taboada, 2020).
As the paper suggests, it is an eye-
opener for those who are in the main grid as
well as the government or authorities that
hold the power to implement policy. Most
main grid areas have the luxury to use
electricity with a low experience of power
outage compared to the off the grid areas
where there is an extremely low opportunity
to use electricity.
Electricity has become a vital part of
modern technology and has great
contributions to the economy and to people’s
way of life since most daily work involves
and depends on the use of electricity to be
more productive . It is just disappointing to
know that there are small islands that do not
have access to electricity because at first, I
thought that every part of the Philippine area
may be a small island or in the mainland area
has access to electricity despite occasional
interruptions.
The paper also shows the detailed
methodology and the data that was gathered
to understand if there is energy poverty
happening in the three islands that serve as
the respondents of the said study. The study
used two different ways to determine if there
is energy poverty, these are HEPM which I
understood as the binary approach, and
MEPI. In the HEPM approach, the result
gives a low percentage of energy poverty in
the three small islands while the results of the
MEPI approach have shown transparency of
energy poverty which is a little bit different
from the HEPM approach. This tells me that
using the binary approach gives a shallow
fact-based comparison to the MEPI approach
which is more preferable in terms of accuracy
with regards to these studies about off the
grids.
From my perspective, it has a slight
relationship from the previous insight paper
that I made where the problem encountered
as to why the off-grids cannot have a
connection is for the reason that there are no
sufficient funds that can hold up the costs
which can be only solved if there are lots of
investors/developers that will have the
interest to invest.
The study is competent enough since it
clearly shows the problem and serves as an
illustration from other off-grids that need to
be taken care of. If I might give a suggestion,
first, certainly do not set aside off-grid areas
because as the study said “the world is
succeeding in bringing electricity” (Lazano-
Taboada, 2020). If the government will say
that the reason why they give less attention to
off-grids is due to it is uneconomic then their
reason is not agreeable, because if the
government has been paying attention to off-
grids and given assistance to have reliable
access to electricity ever since then off-grid
would have long been economically viable.
Second, the government should lessen
the FiTs since the population in small islands
are too little which would also mean that their
income is also too low, if the government will
neglect that issue about FiTs there will be no
improvement and if FiTs are too expensive,
cost of electricity is not affordable by the off-
grids.
Lastly, other off-grid areas other than
Palawan and Mindoro should also be
subsidized by the UCME. Engr. Lazano once
said that they do not have a clear
understanding as to why Cobrador, Pangan-
an, and Gilutongan are not subsidized by
UCME yet. But, when I have researched
UCME subsidies, I think the responsibility
for holding the implementation of UCME
subsidies for other off-grids is the
government. PALECO (Palawan Electricity
Cooperative) stated in an interview that the
DOE (Department of Energy) proposed a
memorandum that states the removal of
UCME subsidy (Lectura, 2020). The DOE
proposed the memorandum and has the
assistance of EU-ASEP (European Union
Access to Sustainable Energy Programme)
which aims to ensure an efficient and well-
targeted provision of subsidies and to reduce
the social inequity in the implementation of
the program (Usec. Juaneza, 2020).
All in all, the issue about the UCME
subsidy is I cannot agree to have it removed
because even the government cannot offer
assistance for the off-grid areas and yet they
dare to raise such a memorandum. UCME
subsidy is like the silver lining that off-grids
hope for, if it is removed then there will be no
chance that off-grids will have the
opportunity to be economically viable. DOE
should reevaluate removing the UCME
subsidy.
REFERENCE
1. https://asian-
power.com/regulation/commentary/
 missionary-electrification-subsidies-
inphilippines
2. https://palawan-news.com/removal-
of-ucme-subsidy-can-increase-
power-rates-paleco-says/
3. https://businessmirror.com.ph/2020/1
0/15/eu-funded-program-helps-doe-
craft-policy-onucme-subsidy/
4. https://www.doe.gov.ph/announceme
nts/advisory-rationalization-uc-me-
subsidy-pursuantrule-10-department-
circular-no-dc2019?ckattempt=1