Negros power co-op says mitigation measures to cost more

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines—The Central Negros Electric Cooperative will consult local government leaders before tapping temporary replacement power to mitigate frequent power outages because this would cost consumers P1.40 more per kilowatt hour.

Ceneco general manager Sulpicio Lagarde Jr. said on Friday that increasing the power rate will become necessary if the electric cooperative will have to buy additional power from independent power producer Global Energy Resources, which is based in Iloilo .

The Ceneco coverage area has been suffering from daily brownouts, sometimes lasting for two hours, because of ongoing preventive maintenance work on Unit 3 of the Palinpinon 1 geothermal plant in Negros Oriental owned by Green Core Geothermal Inc.

Fernando De Rivera, Green Core corporate communications officer, said the preventive maintenance work will be completed by April 26 and power supply will be back to normal by April 27.

“We will have normal power supply during the May 10 elections,” De Rivera said, adding, however, that he could not give an assurance that there will be no brownouts because that will depend on the power distributors who purchase power from Green Core.

Preventive maintenance work will also be undertaken on Palinpinon 2 starting July 7 but Green Core is looking into tapping power from the Leyte geothermal plant to mitigate power shortages then, he added.

Lagarde said Ceneco is looking into buying replacement power from Global Energy Resources in Iloilo to prevent the brownouts while preventive maintenance work is underway in Palinpinon 1.

Buying Global Energy’s power for a period of 30 days will mean an estimated increase in power rates for Ceneco consumers that is now at P6.31 per kwh in residential areas to P7.71 per kwh, he said.

But this will still be cheaper than what power consumers in Iloilo and Cebu pay, which is more than P10 per kwh, he said.

He said a consultation with local government leaders will have to be made before Ceneco taps replacement power because it will then have to get approval from the Energy Regulatory Administration, National Electrification Administration and Department of Energy to do so.

However, he also said that from a 32-megawatts shortage experienced by Ceneco at the start of the preventive maintenance work at Palinpinon, it went down to 18 mw on Thursday and 13.2 mw on Friday.

“There are two options—to go for the alternative power and pay more or stand the power interruptions until Green Core can provide sufficient power from Palinpinon,” he added. –Carla Gomez, Inquirer Visayas