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Total electrification of off-grid areas: Sen. Risa Hontiveros notes that Qualified Third Parties (QTPs) are channels through which Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) had promised to infuse new private capital into the power industry to achieve total electrification in off-grid areas. During Friday’s hybrid briefing of the Finance Subcommittee E, October 7, 2022, on the proposed 2023 budget of the Department of Energy (DOE), Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), and National Electrification Administration (NEA), Hontiveros said 20 years after the EPIRA, only 12 QTP projects were approved so far, being operated by three companies, and targeting 13,562 households only. Of the 12 QTP projects that were approved, only four are operational. “It seems that the QTP program failed to expand the electricity access, especially in off-grid areas,” Hontiveros said. Department of Energy Undersecretary Wimpy Fuentebella said the QTP has already been replaced by the MicroGrid Systems Act, which was passed during the previous Congress and signed into law early this year by President Duterte. Fuentebella said the MicroGrid Systems is a warning to distribution utilities (DUs) that have the obligation to connect certain communities with the services of electrification. (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)