Napocor needs $911M for remote, off-grid areas

Napocor needs as much as US$911.4 million to fund its electrification projects in remote and off-grid areas over the next five years.

According to National Power Corporation president Froilan A. Tampinco, the amount will be used to put up new power facilities under the agency’s small power utilities group or SPUG, on top of maintaining the existing facilities that the power firm had earlier put up in these far-flung areas.

Tampinco admitted that Napocor was finding it difficult to raise funds after it had been barred, through a Department of Justice opinion, from incurring further borrowings and issuances. Napocor’s capacity to provide advances, he added, had also been largely diminished with the privatization of its power-generating plants and contracted capacities, based on a report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Napocor now has to rely on marginal revenue from remaining customer sales, government subsidies and the universal charge for missionary electrification, which is being imposed on all power consumers.

Currently, Napocor is asking the Energy Regulatory Commission to reconsider its order and increase to US$320.7 million the approved subsidy for the SPUG, from the US$63.68 million it approved earlier.

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Tags: budget, remote areas, off-grid