INDEED there bodes more (pun intended) bright days ahead for the natives, citizens and consumers of “I Am Iloilo City” as power interruptions or brownouts will soon be a very rare occurrence if not totally eliminated.
When MORE Power took over from the now defunct Panay Electric Co. (PECO) as the power distribution utility of “I Am Iloilo City”, one of its “campaign promises” so to speak was to significantly bring down the electric rates. Which it eventually did.
MORE POWER was able to significantly bring down the electricity rate from a high of P12 per kWh during PECO’s watch to P6.45 per kWh for residential consumers in July, the lowest in the country, and dropped further to P6.38 per kWh in September.
Another “campaign promise” was to lessen to a very significant level the occurrence of power interruptions or brownouts if not totally eliminate them. This obviously is a bone of contention not to mention inconvenience for the natives, citizens and consumers of “I Am Iloilo City.
And they did with a more than 70% reduction of the occurrence of this pesky if not inconvenient power interruptions or brownouts.
Let’s check out these excerpts from the Dec. 9, 2021 issue of Panay News:
City power interruptions drop by over 70%
MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) has kept its promise of better service to Ilonggo consumers.
Aside from lower rates, electricity consumers in this city now experience fewer power interruptions.
MORE Power president Roel Castro said in August alone, there were only three power interruptions.
Data showed a significant decrease in the number of feeder level outages caused by animal intrusions.
Castro attributed the improvement to the increased number of installed animal guards and silicon rubber. The city’s sole power distributor installed 206 animal guards and 177 sets of silicone rubber insulators.
MORE Power also installed 31 automatic circuit reclosers (ARCs) and six load break switches (LBS).
“With this, we were able to avert over 70 percent of instantaneous causes or brownouts/ interruptions in the feeder,” said Castro.
There was a 73-percent average decrease in the number of power interruptions, a 86-percent average decrease in interruption frequency and a 95-percent average decrease in system interruption duration, all within 10 months.
Really, that’s not bad at all. In fact, very good indeed.
Meanwhile, going further down that Dec. 9 Panay News:
There was a 73-percent average decrease in the number of power interruptions, an 86-percent average decrease in interruption frequency and a 95-percent average decrease in system interruption duration, all within 10 months.
So the “campaign promises” were fulfilled. The next question would be, can it maintain the momentum and bring it up to the next level?
Based on the continuous technical innovations and improvement done by MORE Power on the distribution system, it would most probably safe to say, yes it can maintain the momentum and even bring it up to the next level, perhaps even spread the blessings enjoyed by Iloilo City to nearby local government units.
That is, if Congress approves the amendments to MORE Power’s franchise allowing it to expand and be the power distribution utility of these neighboring local government units i.e. Pavia, Leganes, Oton.
If that indeed does happen, we can only thank Pavia’s Sangguniang Bayan member Daniel S. Fajardo for planting the seed borne out of genuine concern for the welfare of his constituents long suffering from poor service, exorbitant electric rates and continuous brownouts from outdated electrical cooperatives.
With HB10271 which aims to extend MORE Power’s franchise to the neighboring towns of the Metro Iloilo area already approved in the committee level, it won’t be long before Pavia SB member Daniel S. Fajardo’s hope for a better life for his constituents becomes a reality.
And finally we segue back to “I Am Iloilo City” and brownouts and power interruptions. It is common knowledge that aside from technical problems, the other cause of these power interruptions or brownouts are the illegal electrical connections or “jumpers”.
The ongoing campaign against these “illegalistas” has netted and brought to court a significant number of them, including elected local officials i.e. several barangay captains and kagawads and one city councilor.
We can then safely say that the continuous technical innovations and improvements on the distribution system and campaign against illegal electrical connections or “jumpers” will indeed lessen the occurrence of brownouts to a very significant level if not totally eliminate them. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com)/PN
