BACOLOD City – The Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) is insisting that its P0.0817 per-kilowatt-hour additional monthly charge among power consumers is “valid.”
“It was a valid order from Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) that is why we implemented it,” stressed Ceneco general manager Sulpicio Lagarde.
Lagarde said this after the Social Action Center (SAC) of the Diocese of Bacolod continued to question the extra power charge.
The SAC said Ceneco must not collect the additional charge pending resolution to a motion for reconsideration it filed before the ERC.
In September last year, the ERC approved the joint application of Ceneco and the Kepco-Salcon Power Corp. (KSPC) for a load factor-based pricing scheme on the monthly reconciliation of an unpaid amount under their supplemental agreement on June 27 that year.
Ceneco may charge its consumer-members the additional monthly fee for 50 months until its P232,010,090 unpaid contract quantity with KSPC is recovered, the ERC said.
But the SAC filed in October a motion for reconsideration against the decision.
After this, Ceneco’s Board of Directors asked the management to suspend the collection of the additional charge until the ERC decides on the SAC’s motion.
In response to a query from Lagarde, ERC chairwoman and chief executive officer Agnes Devanadera in a letter said Ceneco can carry out the September 2017 ERC decision.
But SAC legal counsel Vicente Petierre III said Devanadera was just expressing an opinion, not giving an order.
On Monday Lagarde was scheduled to attend a committee hearing that Councilor Wilson Gamboa called to tackle the issue./PN
