Republic Act 11646 mandates the conduct of a competitive selection process before a micro grid system provider can serve off-grid areas. The law also requires distribution utilities to submit their local total electrification roadmaps and list of underserved areas.
Unserved area refers to an area with no electricity access, distribution system lines, individual home system, or no connection to any microgrid system. Underserved area, on the other hand, refers to an area where electricity services are less than 24 hours served by individual home system, microgrid system or distribution utilities.
Based on the 2020 census of population and household projections, the DOE expects that the government electrification efforts will have to cater to 3.7 million households, of which 2.7 million are within the franchise areas of electric cooperatives requiring different electrification strategies, rationalized government subsidy and innovative implementation schemes.