The United States Rural Utilities Service (RUS) administers programs that provide infrastructure or infrastructure improvements to rural communities. These include water and waste treatment, electric power, and telecommunications services. It is an operating unit of the USDA Rural Development agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). It was created in 1935 as the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), a New Deal agency promoting rural electrification.
A utility cooperative is a type of cooperative that is tasked with the delivery of a public utility such as electricity, water or telecommunications to its members. Profits are either reinvested for infrastructure or distributed to members in the form of "patronage" or "capital credits", which are dividends paid on a member's investment in the cooperative.
The Manila Electric Company, also known as Meralco, is an electric power distribution company in the Philippines. It is Metro Manila's only electric power distributor and holds the power distribution franchise for 22 cities and 89 municipalities, including the whole of Metro Manila and the exurbs that form Mega Manila.
The National Power Corporation is a Philippine government-owned and controlled corporation that is mandated to provide electricity to all rural areas of the Philippines by 2025, to manage water resources for power generation, and to optimize the use of other power generating assets.
The Southwestern Power Administration (Southwestern) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Energy. Southwestern's mission was established by Section 5 of the Flood Control Act of 1944. The agency is a power marketing administration responsible for marketing the hydroelectric power produced at 24 United States Army Corps of Engineers multipurpose dams. By law, the power and associated energy are marketed to publicly held entities such as rural electric cooperatives and municipal utilities. Southwestern has over one hundred such "preference" customers which ultimately serve over 10 million end use customers.
Rural electrification is the process of bringing electrical power to rural and remote areas. Rural communities are suffering from colossal market failures as the national grids fall short of their demand for electricity. As of 2019, 770 million people live without access to electricity – 10.2% of the global population. Electrification typically begins in cities and towns and gradually extends to rural areas, however, this process often runs into obstacles in developing nations. Expanding the national grid is expensive and countries consistently lack the capital to grow their current infrastructure. Additionally, amortizing capital costs to reduce the unit cost of each hook-up is harder to do in lightly populated areas. If countries are able to overcome these obstacles and reach nationwide electrification, rural communities will be able to reap considerable amounts of economic and social development.
The Department of Energy is the executive department of the Philippine government responsible for preparing, integrating, manipulating, organizing, coordinating, supervising, and controlling all plans, programs, projects and activities of the Government relative to energy exploration, development, utilization, distribution and conservation.
The National Transmission Corporation is a Philippine government-owned and controlled corporation created in June 26, 2001 by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act and a corporate entity wholly owned by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM). It is the owner of the country's power grid and its related assets and facilities since March 1, 2003, and also served as operator of the grid from March 2003 until the turnover of the grid's operations and maintenance to the privately owned National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) on January 15, 2009.
Central Negros Electric Cooperative, Inc., simply known as CENECO, is an electric cooperative in the Philippines. It was incorporated on February 24, 1975 and serves Bacolod City and nearby towns and cities in Negros Occidental.
Energy laws govern the use and taxation of energy, both renewable and non-renewable. These laws are the primary authorities related to energy. In contrast, energy policy refers to the policy and politics of energy.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) is a privately owned corporation that was created on January 15, 2009, through RA 9511. It is a consortium of three corporations, namely Monte Oro Grid Resources Corporation, Calaca High Power Corporation, and the State Grid Corporation of China.
First Philippine Holdings Corporation (FPH) is a management and investment company whose major business is power generation and distribution, with strategic initiatives in manufacturing and property development. FPH is a member of the Lopez Group of Companies.
REC Limited, formerly Rural Electrification Corporation Limited, of which Power Finance Corporation Limited (PFC) is the holding company of that is under the ownership of the Ministry of Power, the Government of India. It finances and promotes power projects across India. The PSU provides loans to Central/State Sector Power Utilities in the country, State Electricity Boards, Rural Electric Cooperatives, NGOs and Private Power Developers. On 20 March 2019, PFC signed an agreement to acquire a 52.63% controlling stake in REC for ₹14,500 crore (US$1.8 billion). On 28 March, PFC announced that it had completed making the payment for the acquisition and intended to merge REC with itself in 2020. However, REC has maintained that merging PFC-REC is no longer an option.
The electricity sector in the Philippines provides electricity through power generation, transmission, and distribution to many parts of the country. The Philippines is divided into three electrical grids, one each for Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. As of June 2016, the total installed capacity in the Philippines was 20,055 megawatts (MW), of which 14,348 MW was on the Luzon grid. As of June, 2016, the all-time peak demand on Luzon was 9,726 MW at 2:00 P.M. on May 2, 2016; on Visayas was 1,878 MW at 2:00 P.M. on May 11, 2016; and on Mindanao was 1,593 MW at 1:35 P.M. on June 8, 2016. However, about 12% of Filipinos have no access to electricity. The Philippines is also one of the countries in the world that has a fully functioning electricity market since 2006 called the Philippine Wholesale Electricity Spot Market(WESM) and is operated by an independent market operator.
In 2013, renewable energy provided 26.44% of the total electricity in the Philippines and 19,903 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electrical energy out of a total demand of 75,266 gigawatt-hours. The Philippines is a net importer of fossil fuels. For the sake of energy security, there is momentum to develop renewable energy sources. The types available include hydropower, geothermal power, wind power, solar power and biomass power. The government of the Philippines has legislated a number of policies in order to increase the use of renewable energy by the country.
The Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines, Inc. (IEMOP) is a private, non-stock, non-profit corporation that functions as the market operator of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM). It assumed WESM operations in September 2018. IEMOP's board of directors is composed of individuals independent from the power industry stakeholders and the government as mandated by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA).
Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association Inc. (Philreca) Party-List is a political organization of the Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association which has party-list representation in the House of Representatives of the Philippines. It represents the interest of Philreca's member electricity cooperatives and its consumers.
Romblon Wind Farm is a wind farm in Romblon, Romblon, Philippines. The wind farm uses three units of 41.5-meter (136 ft) high Komaihaltec KWT300 wind turbines erected on the hills of Barangays Agnay, Bagacay and Lonos in Romblon, Romblon. The wind farm is a project of Romblon Electric Cooperative (ROMELCO) and was made possible through a funding grant from Japanese companies Komaihaltec Inc. and Honda Motor Co. Ltd. The wind turbines were erected in 2018 and began operation in 2019. Under the contract between ROMELCO, Komaihaltec Inc., and Honda Motor Co. Ltd., the wind farm will be turned over to ROMELCO in 2023 after a four-year demonstration period.
The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA), formerly the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is an independent regulatory authority responsible for technical and economic regulation of electricity, petroleum and renewable energy subsectors in Kenya.
