ILOILO City – Electricity consumers are being unfairly burdened by the damage caused by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) on a submarine cable of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), according to Cong. Michael Gorriceta (2nd District, Iloilo) and Cong. Julienne Baronda (Iloilo City).
“Hindi naman kasalanan ni consumer ang kasalanan ni DPWH,” said Baronda during Thursday’s House Committee on Appropriations’ Budget Briefings/Hearings.
Dredging and re-channeling activities of DPWH along Bio-os River in Barangay Jagna, Amlan, Negros Oriental on June 15 damaged NGCP’s 138 kiloVolt (kV) high voltage submarine cable there.
One of its effects is the uptick in power rates in Panay Island – from P1 to P1.50 per kilowatt hour (kWh) starting this month.
“Kailangan tanungin ‘yung (DPWH) contractor kung meron bang insurance because we need to protect our consumers,” said Baronda.
Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) chairperson Agnes Devanadera said the responsibility rests with the one who caused the damage.
As far as the ERC is concerned, she said, the only thing they can do is monitor and make sure there are efforts and plans for rehabilitation.
“I hope DPWH acts on this matter. Ilang libong consumers ang apektabo dito,” said Baronda.
Gorriceta, on the other hand, said consumers were being forced to pay for higher generational charges due to the damage.
He appealed to the Department of Energy (DOE) to include this concern in the national budget, and possibly intervene and fast-track the repair.
“It came to my knowledge that NGCP was forced to use diesel power for the meantime while waiting for the foreign experts to completely repair the fiber optic (cable) – estimated target initially would be sometime in January (next year),” said Gorriceta.
Energy Undersecretary Emmanuel Juaneza, however, said the expenditure for the repair and maintenance of high voltage submarine cables is not part of the DOE budget.
“We have been asking NGCP to compress the completion schedule because we know the impact to the consumers. In fact, every month we have a meeting with NGCP,” said Juaneza.
He added: “Once we receive the report from NGCP, immediately the DOE will call for a Zoom meeting to start the investigation together with ERC as to the liquidation of damages or whatever should be charged to the injury caused by the damage to the consumers.”
On July 6, NGPC announced they were repairing the damaged high-voltage submarine cable.
The cable, which interconnected Negros and Cebu, had two circuits of 138kV submarine cable with 90 megawatts (MW) capacity each for a total of 180 MW.
Because of the damage on one of the two circuits, transmission capacity between the two islands became limited only to 90MW./PN
