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Power Watch has ‘high expectations’ for proposed joint venture with Ceneco

Power Watch Negros has high expectations that a proposed joint venture agreement (JVA) with Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO) will mean efficient services for its consumers, PWN secretary general Wennie Sancho said Tuesday, March 21.

The unsolicited JVA proposal of MORE Electric and Power Corp. and Manila Electric Co. was submitted to the National Electrification Administration (NEA) for guidance, CENECO acting general manager Arnel Lapore said earlier. CENECO is still waiting for NEA’s reply, he said.

Sancho said most of CENECO’s substations are in derelict condition and are approaching maximum capacity.

The substation protection features do not include a transformer differential protection that protects the power transformers from internal and external faults. There has been no calibration of thousands of old and defective meters to check massive pilferage by unscrupulous consumers. CENECO has also failed to replace its distribution lines and poles with insulated and sturdier ones, including new technology and gadgets, Sancho said.

“CENECO should have been fully committed to the upgrading of power infrastructures to meet the needs of the consumers. CENECO failed in their task of overhauling and rehabilitating the most basic facilities, particularly the substations and power lines which were literally overheating to full capacity,” he added.

Sancho said they would like to think that the proponents of the JVA have incorporated the complaints he cited “to level up the technical operation of CENECO.”

“We expect that with the combined resources and industry expertise of MERALCO and MORE Power Corp., they would come up with a scheme to reconfigure the system when there are sudden and unscheduled power interruptions. The substations and feeders will be in coordination to react if there are brownouts,” he said.

They are hoping that with the JVA there will be shorter and fewer power interruptions, he said.

Hopefully, the JVA could bring more to the consumers by way of a more affordable, reliable, efficient and stable power supply system, Sancho said.

The proposed JVA should strive to operationalize a state-of-the-art control center and put up a robust distribution system with maximum tolerance to causes of unintended outages. This new system would have the capacity to handle bigger demand from consumers and industries, he added.

If the proposed JVA delivers on these needed improvements and brings progress there is no reason not to support it, Sancho said.

He also said Power Watch is consistent in its advocacy to save and protect the CENECO consumers and “remove the corrupt and incompetent officers and employees”.

“The basic principles of the JVA should be exposed to the full light of public scrutiny for purposes of transparency and accountability, paving the way for an atmosphere that is conducive for this crucial agreement,” Sancho said.*

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