Lighting a path forward for families in Cebu through the free house-wiring project of AboitizPower's Visayan Electric

AboitizPower distribution utility launches a project that helps bring the country closer to full, inclusive electrification

- By JASMINE TUAÑO

Reaching indigent households, Visayan Electric's house-wiring electrification project saw a team of accredited electricians travel by foot just to reach far-flung communities that needed to be energized.

In many rural and indigent communities across the Visayas, families dream of having electricity but are held back on the last mile of energization. Because of the daily burdens of everyday needs, they cannot afford the most basic requirement inside their own homes: safe and compliant electrical wiring. It is a quiet barrier that keeps a house in the dark even when the power lines are already running outside.

Local leaders often describe this gap as heartbreakingly simple. Households want to be energized, distribution utilities are ready to connect them, yet the cost of proper wiring forces many families to postpone that hope, many for years.

Distribution utility Visayan Electric Company Inc. (Visayan Electric), a subsidiary of AboitizPower Corporation (AboitizPower) which serves eight cities and municipalities across Metro Cebu, already has a barangay electrification rate of 100% in their franchise area. But at the household level, understanding the barriers to switching on the light in indigent homes and knowing what this meant for the families living within, Visayan Electric created a path forward.

Visayan Electric's free house-wiring project

Last September, the company launched its free house-wiring project, designed specifically for households as potential beneficiaries. The first phase covers 2,013 homes in Naga City and 718 in San Fernando.