ILOILO City – The National Electrification Administration (NEA) will look into the power supply contract of the Aklan Electric Cooperative (Akelco) as power demand in Boracay is expected to drop during its six-month closure.
NEA deputy administrator Nikki Tortola said they will evaluate what part of the power contract would address problems that may arise once Boracay shuts down.
According to Tortola, NEA’s regulatory affairs office already informed Akelco “to look into the contract.”
He said they are hoping that the contract has a provision that will allow the power cooperative to reduce its supply to the island so as not to affect power rates in the province.
Tortola stressed that Akelco is not at fault as it did not anticipate Boracay’s closure.
He added that NEA will make sure that electric consumers will not be affected by the island shutdown.
“We are hopeful that the effect, the shutdown on Boracay and the possible reduction demand in the mainland, will not significantly affect Akelco member-consumers,” said Tortola, adding that in the next six months they “could establish a significant strategy already for Boracay.”
Akelco, in its Facebook page, said that power consumption in Boracay is expected to drop about 84 percent during the closure.
It also said it is expected to reduce 38 percent of its overall load profile.
Akelco has a power contract with the Green Core Geothermal, Inc. (18 megawatts), the Panay Energy Development Corp. (12 megawatts), the Palm Concepcion Power Corp. (8 megawatts), and the Panay Power Corp. (4 megawatts).
Akelco added that the “power rate will be greatly affected” as it expects a P1.58 increase in its generation charge.
Akelco general manager Alexis Regalado has “created a crisis term to work on the planned negotiation with the generating companies,” Akelco said.
Among the terms of the negotiation are “to reduce the Minimum Energy Off-Take” and “for the coop[erative] to just pay its actual energy, hourly reduction is proportionate to all generating companies and monthly reconciliation to adjust the bilateral contract quotient.”
If the companies agree on the proposal, generation charge will only be at P0.0162, Akelco explained. (With report from the Philippine News Agency/PN)
