21st Century electric service comes to the Philippines

Barangay Camastilisan in Calaca, Batangas is not the sort of place where one would expect to find anything that could be described as “cutting edge,” but the residents of the bucolic little village surrounded by cane fields can now boast that they are the first in the nation to enjoy prepaid electricity services, thanks to Xen Energy Systems, Inc. (XESI) and the Batangas I Electric Cooperative (BATELEC I).

Although the prepaid system called Kuryentxt engineered and packaged by Makati-based XESI has been undergoing rigorous development and evaluation in a number of locations around the Philippines for the past couple years, the launch in Camastilisan last Tuesday was an important milestone, marking the transition from testing to actual implementation of the system. About 300 Batelec I customers in Camastilisan will be able to sign up for the service initially, with a gradual roll-out of the prepaid system throughout Batelec I’s service area planned for the coming months. Other areas of the country where Kuryentxt has been tested or where pilot programs are planned include Bohol, where customers of the Boheco II cooperative will be the next to see implementation of the system, Tarlac, Zambales, Cagayan de Oro, Biliran, Negros Occidental, Leyte, Davao del Norte, Iriga, South Cotobato, Cagayan, Camarines Norte, Ilo¬ilo and San Fernando, Pampanga.