Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said he is hoping that power utilized within the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO) franchise area will come from completely renewable sources by next year.
Benitez met with Roel Z. Castro, Primelectric Holdings Inc. president and chief executive officer, whose firm has entered into a joint venture agreement with CENECO, on Tuesday, September 5.
Under the agreement a joint venture firm to be known as Negros Electric and Power Corp. (NEPC) will take over the power distribution within the CENECO franchise area.
Benitez said the majority of the CENECO consumer-members having voted in favor of the JVA means “we are heading in the right direction”.
“Hopefully we can expect better services…the talking is over, now is the doing, we want to see them deliver on their commitments”, Benitez said.
“I announced during my state of the city address that hopefully within 10 to 15 years power (here) will be completely renewable…we are hoping that we can achieve this status by early as next year,” Benitez said following his meeting with Castro.
Benitez said being the first area completely using renewable power will draw international investors to Bacolod.
There are available geothermal, hydro, biomass, wind and solar power in Negros, he pointed out.
Benitez pointed out that his conditions for supporting the JVA was that they provide stable power supply at low prices, and go for renewable energy.
They have given a plan on how to achieve that, which will be closely watched, Benitez said.
“This will be exciting times ahead,” he said.
A Congress-approved franchise for NEPC to operate in the CENECO area is expected by the proponents as early this year or as late as the second quarter next year, Benitez said.
Meanwhile, Castro said he met with the CENECO council of managers to address their concerns and to assure them that there is nothing to fear with the establishment of the NEPC.
“We would like to make this as smooth as possible, especially for the consumers,” he said.
He, however, could not say when the NEPC will be established as it will depend on how long the approval of its franchise takes.
Castro reiterated that with the JVA consumers will have competitive power rates and better services.
However, brownouts will not go away overnight, this will entail a five-year development program, Castro said.*