BACOLOD City – To avoid disconnection, Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) is offering a “staggered” scheme payment for long overdue electricity bills of member-consumer-owners (MCOs).
According to Ceneco president Jojit Yap, they are increasing the collection efficiency of the cooperative in compliance to the National Electrification Administration’s (NEA) requirement of 95-percent collection efficiency monthly.
Due to the coronavirus disease pandemic, many appealed for reconsideration of their pending bills. Some have dues for almost six months to a year, Yap noted.
The board and the management came up with a decision to oblige MCOs with long overdue bills to pay half of their total bills, and the remaining to be paid in installments.
Yap said last month the collection efficiency of Ceneco was about 80 percent, but for this month it reached 91 percent.
Collection inefficiency is one of the issues being hurled at the cooperative. Another is alleged overpricing in electricity rates, which Yap denied, pointing out that Ceneco cannot implement rates without the approval of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
“All rates must be approved by ERC before the cooperative imposes them, indi kami ka pagusto lang sukot,” the Ceneco official emphasized during a press conference on June 15 at the Ceneco Main Building here.
Regarding the contract with Kepco Salcon Power Corp. (KSPC), Yap said Ceneco had no choice but extend a 20-megawatt (MW) contract while waiting for the answer of the Department of Energy (DOE) to its appeal to allow the board to evaluate the bids of generation utilities participating in competitive selection process (CSP).
It was learned that Ceneco accepted the earlier offer of KSPC for a one-year extension following the end of their power contract on May 2021.
Other issues also discussed were the Memorandum of Understanding rescinded by the board, the power interruptions, privatization, and system loss./PN
