At the beginning of the Sangguniang Panlungsod hearing on Thursday, August 18, that was set to discuss Central Negros Electric Cooperative’s financial status and refund to consumers, Bacolod City Councilor Kalaw Puentevella asked the management to explain the series of brownouts and its one bill policy.
Puentevella chairs the Sangguniang Panlungsod committee on energy.
Engineer Jose Taniongon, manager of the CENECO-Unified Engineering and Operation Maintenance Department, explained that the outages were caused after the insulator of one of their 69kV lines broke down. He added that they do not want power interruptions because their families are also affected.
Councilor Thaddy Sayson said no one had answered him when he called CENECO’s hotline. He said that every week, the power line tripped off in his area, and that they have a patient who is undergoing dialysis at their home.
Acting CENECO general manager Ervin Stan Leo Ticar admitted they are also having a hard time contacting their hotline, but they are trying to find a solution.
Power Watch convenor Wennie Sancho wrote to the SP to conduct a hearing regarding the issues that are hounding CENECO.
He questioned why there was still no refund given to the consumers even though the Energy Regulatory Commission has already ordered it.
CENECO explained that payment of the refund had already started through the P.15 discount for every kilowatt hour in the electricity bill.
Former councilor Jun Gamboa also questioned CENECO’s transactions and loans. But CENECO explained that they took a loan of P135 million to pay in advance the electricity suppliers to avail of the P2.4 million discount.
Sancho stressed that consumers should be informed about this matter.
He also questioned why the CENECO board of directors were not present during hearing. The council is expected to call another public hearing and invite all the board of directors to attend.
POWER RATE
Meanwhile, CENECO informed its consumers Thursday, August 18, that the average
residential rate for the billing month of August is P15.4772/kWh, an increase of P1.2891/kWh from last month’s rate of 14.1881/kWh.
The rate hike can be attributed to the increase in generaton, transmission and system loss charges caused by the increase in the Palm Concepcion Power Corporation (PCPC) fuel price
from P8.0841 to P9.5512, increase in average Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) price from
P8.6583 to P9.4171, implementation of rate adjustments, and other pass through charges.*