Philippines: Energy Access Using Solar Home Systems

This technical assistance helped the Department of Energy assess the potential for developing an OBA scheme for solar homes systems on a large scale.

Activities included:
1) A review of existing government programs to increase access, including those that have used output-based approaches.
2) Identify the key issues to be addressed in meeting the GOP policy objective of connecting around 3-million households by 2017.
3) OBA subsidy approaches that are feasible for implementation and that have the potential to support a high rate of connections.
4) Recommendations for an optimal approach and identify key next steps (including ensuring consistency and coordination with GOP’s OBA strategy).

This activity advised the Philippines'  Department of Energy on options for sustainable business models, policy and regulatory frameworks for the provision of Solar Home Systems (SHS) as part of the government's broader rural electrification program.

The preferred option likely to have had the highest potential to deliver the required scale of connections and to ensure sustainability in meeting the government's targets was the provision of SHS by the electric cooperatives as part of their regulated business, under a fee for service model.