NEA Loans to Electricity Utilities Hit P455M in August

The National Electrification Administration (NEA) has lent 19 Electricity Cooperatives (ECs) 455.29 million pesos for their investment projects (Capex) and plant restoration through the end of August.

“Data from the NEA Accounts Management and Guarantee Department dated August 31, 2021 showed the bulk, or 380,293 million, of email declarations on Wednesday.

The loans to the electricity suppliers fall under the agency’s “extended loan programâ€.

Of the 16 cooperatives, three cooperatives – Camarines Sur III Electric Cooperative, Inc., Camarines Sur IV Electric Cooperative, Inc., and Quezon I Electric Cooperative, Inc. – have borrowed money from the NEA to fund restoration work on facilities operated by recent typhoons. the agency told separately Business world via his Twitter account.

The electricity suppliers join three other ECs, which together will collect at least € 75 million in the eight months to August.

The agency’s expanded loan program includes regular loans, catastrophe loans, discounted loans, and renewable energy loans, among others.

The catastrophe loan has an interest rate of 3.25% per year and a maximum repayment period of 10 years with a grace period of one year.

NEA, which is working towards full electrification of the country, previously said it supplied electricity to a total of 590 rural villages in the first six months of the year, or more than half of its 2021 target. In July, the agency announced that the majority or 326 of the newly “energized” Sitios are in Mindanao.

This year the NEA has a budget of 1.63 billion pesos under the general budget law. It called for additional funds of up to 16.76 billion pesos to be made available over the course of five more years to power more than 11,000 rural villages under the Sitio electrification program. – Angelica Y. Yang