LAST week’s piece in PN, in which it was reported that Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) denied that a contract extension for 20 megawatts of power supply from Kepco Salcon was overpriced, is of interest.
As a Ceneco consumer, I am disappointed that Kepco Salcon has been able to negotiate any contract extension. We are still smarting from the previous, 2011 contract that Ceneco negotiated with Kepco. This contract had a penalty clause in which if Ceneco failed to purchase the agreed amount of electricity, then it would still have to pay. In fact, Ceneco did so fail and Kepco did invoke the penalty clause.
The case was submitted to the Energy Regulatory (Commission (ERC) for approval. This was first done in 2013 (ERC Case 2013-141). On this occasion both Kepco and Ceneco submitted the request. ERC, perhaps understandably, did not reach a decision.
In 2014, Kepco, this time unaccompanied by Ceneco, made a further submission. Again, ERC failed to reach a decision.
Kepco was tenacious, however. In 2017 it made a third, and this time successful petition to the ERC, and on this occasion the hapless Ceneco consumers found that they were being forced to pay P232 million for non-existent electricity that they did not need, want, or ask for. This was not the high point in ERC decision-making and in any case the Chairman at the time was being excoriated by the Ombudsman.
Ceneco’s consumers are still having to pay the amount it was adjudged to have owed. Fortunately the payments are ‘easy’ (7.29 centavos per kilowatt hour) but even after four years we have not yet liquefied our indebtedness to Kepco.
Hence our resentment, particularly when Ceneco chooses to renew a contract with Kepco.
A consumer advocacy group, Power Watch Negros, headed by Wennie Sancho, is in touch with Negros Occidental’s 3rd District Rep. Kiko Benitez, seeking a congressional inquiry over alleged overpricing.
I agree.
There needs to be a wide-ranging congressional investigation to establish definitively why it is that electricity prices are so high. A related aspect is the large variation in prices in different areas. The investigation should be followed by legislation which prevents power suppliers from exploiting naïve (or worse) local electricity distributors, underpinned by an inappropriately acquiescent ERC.
The cost paid by Ceneco consumers is almost exactly P11 per kilowatt hour (kWh), whereas Meralco consumers are paying P8.6718 – a difference of P2.33.
An adjacent cooperative to Ceneco, Northern Negros Electric Cooperative (Noneco) also charges its consumers around P8.50 per kWh.
We need to have a congressional inquiry to establish why electricity costs vary so much in different areas.
Our unease is exacerbated by the imbroglio between the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) and the Department of Energy (DOE). NGCP says that if it complied with DOE directives, then the cost of electricity would increase sharply.
We need less brownouts, less controversies and greater efficiencies./PN
