By RALPH JOHN MIJARES
ROXAS City — The Capiz Electric Cooperative (Capelco) has to collect pass-on charges, including generation and transmission costs, and taxes, its general manager said.
Capelco, a power distribution facility, acquires revenue only from distribution costs, Engr. Edgar Diaz explained.
If pass-on charges are not collected, power supply may be cut off from Capelco’s service areas, he stressed during a recent Sangguniang Panlungsod session.
Three businessmen in Capiz passed a position paper claiming Capelco has the highest rate among on-grid power cooperatives in the country as of December 2012 — higher than Iloilo Electric Cooperative (ILECO) and Antique Electric Cooperative (Anteco).
At the session, Councilor Matthew James Viterbo asked Capelco to explain this.
Diaz urged the stakeholders to compare their rates by January next year.
Anteco and ILECOs II and III may likely source from private suppliers once their contracts with the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) expires on December 31, he said.
Diaz last month said Capelco was sourcing from private suppliers after its contract with PSALM expired recently. He also said power supply from PSALM, a government agency, is cheaper than that from private energy companies.
“By January 2015, pwede naton ma-compare kon sin-o ang mataas [power rate],” he said.
He also said the data in the position paper filed by three Capiz businessmen did not include Guimaras Electric Cooperative (Guimelco) and were thus “insufficient.”
In Western Visayas, Guimelco has the highest per-kilowatt-hour charges for residential and low-voltage consumers, while ILECO I has the highest high-voltage charge, all charges exclude value-added tax, Diaz had said.
Capelco ranked only second to the two cooperatives, said the cooperative’s general manager.
The businessmen were Capiz Halaran Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Dale Bernas, Roxas City Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Leny Apaitan, and Pueblo de Panay, Inc. president and chief executive officer Jose Nery Ong./PN
