It is the age of modernity and technology yet there are still a lot of areas in Palawan which have no electricity or cell service. We can understand that far-flung and distant islands have to contend with no electricity but even in the City of Puerto Princesa a lot of areas are still not covered by the electric grid.

And so here comes a consortium of Archipelago Renewables Corp. (ARC), a special purpose vehicle of Maharlika Clean Power Holdings Corp. and Singapore-based firms Winery Global Pte. Ltd. and CleanGrid Partners Pte. Ltd and Palawan Electric Cooperative (Paleco) trying to fill the gap by an investment to supply clean energy to these unserved areas.

The idea is an investment of $18 million or P1 billion will energize more than 30,000 residents, over 7,100 households and small local businesses which were previously off grid and using generators and have limited supply.

ARC will install 16 microgrids spread over 14 barangays in seven municipalities across Palace’s coverage are in a replication of what WEnergy have done in Barangay Cabayugan near the Underground River.

The distribution is a combination of solar and diesel generators and will use smart technologies and has the capacity of about 4,200 kilowatt hour running on a network of about 175 kilometers of primary and secondary power lines energized by 3,800 kilowatts peak of solar photovoltaic, 2000 kW of diesel generators and batteries.

We understand the need and what the private sector and the investors are trying to do which is to fill the dire need of electricity which is hindering the potential of these locales but we also hope the electric rates for this type of renewable energy is reasonable for its users.