The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is hoping for increased registrants to the electricity lifeline rate subsidy with the extension of the full rollout in September.

The Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and the ERC, which are mandated to implement the lifeline rate subsidy, agreed to extend the registration for a month, ERC chairperson Monalisa C. Dimalanta said in a press conference on Thursday.

More or less 12,000 members of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in the country have registered as of July 31, an improvement when compared with the less than 2,000 applications as of June 30.

“But maybe we can do more. Maybe we can increase further and get us closer to the 4.2 million households, so we extended it to September. So the full rollout will be September so that we can have more time to accelerate registration,” she said.

Dimalanta said distribution utilities (DUs) are provided with a list of 4Ps members, so they can visit areas with a high concentration of indigent households for on-site registration.

She also encouraged social welfare and development offices in local government units to work hand-in-hand with distribution utilities to certify non-4Ps to be part of the lifeline rate.

In Iloilo City, More Power and Electric Corp. targets consumers with a consumption of 95 kilowatt-hours (kWh) or less.

As of Aug. 2, it has already received 1,519 applications from 42 out of the 180 barangays of the city.

The DU, in addition to accepting applications at its office, also deploys personnel to barangays for on-site registration.

The discount rate varies depending on their bracket to include a 10 percent discount for those with consumption of 81 kWh to 95 kWh, 20 percent for 71kWh to 80kWh, 35 percent for 61 kWh to 70kWh, 45 percent for 51 kWh to 60kWh, 50 percent for 21kWh to 50 kWh, and 100 percent for 20kWh and less.

Members of the 4Ps are advised to bring their electricity bill and 4Ps identification cards, while other indigent consumers have to prepare any government-issued ID and a certification from the local social welfare and development office that they are an indigent family when processing their applications.

Dimalanta was in Iloilo City on Thursday for the Tripartite Agreement signing with MORE Power and the city government to promote renewable energy (RE) in the locality and the turnover of bill deposit refunds to eligible accounts by the distribution utility.

This highly urbanized city is the first pilot LGU outside of Luzon for the net metering and distributed energy resources (DER) program, and she expressed hope that other local governments would be inspired to follow.

“We hope that with this partnership, we would be able to encourage more people to go green, solar panels, solar lights, etc. so that we achieved the targets, which are being made by the DOE (Department of Energy) and the national government,” Mayor Jerry P. Treñas said in a press conference.

He said Iloilo City National High School, the biggest public secondary school in the city, is using solar panels.

The installation of the solar panel at the city hall, dialysis centers, and Iloilo City Action and Response (ICARE) center has already been bid out.

MORE Power president and chief executive officer Roel Castro said they are aligned with the objectives of the national government to reach the 35 percent RE mix by 2040 and that of the city government to be one of the greener and more sustainable cities in the Philippines.

“In every step that the city government has taken, MORE Power is always with them to support like the e-vehicle program, and very soon we will be expanding to the e-bus fleet, and several others,” Castro said.

One objective of the agreement, he said, is to establish a one-stop shop for net metering and DER applications.

Meanwhile, the distribution utility released PHP173,000 as a refund for the bill deposit of 28 eligible consumers mandated by the Magna Carta for Residential Electricity Consumers.

Consumers who are religious in paying their electricity dues for 36 months without fail or during the termination of their contract with the utility provider can request a refund of their bill deposit. (PNA)