Sunstar Bacolod
Monday, April 11, 2011
CENTRAL Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) president Engr. Edward Gasambelo said the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) always decides in favor of the power consumers.
The call for cancellation of Ceneco’s contract with the Panay Electric Development Corp. (PEDC) by the City Council will rest on the decision of the ERC and he is sure that ERC will decide in favor of the power consumers.
He added all the issues hurled against the power cooperative will rest once the ERC decides, particularly on the contract of Ceneco with PEDC for a flexible intermediate load from 1 to 24 megawatts at a floor price of P3.80 per kilowatt hour on a per "time of use" basis.
He said that the consumers need not worry about the power rates and should not be swayed by misinformation.
Ceneco has been bombarded with complaints when former Ceneco employees’ union president Roy Cordoba urged the Bacolod City Council to investigate Ceneco’s power supply contracts. The City Council conducted a joint committee hearing on the matter.
Gasambelo said that before Ceneco decides to enter into a contract, the proposed agreement undergoes thorough scrutiny by the engineers before it goes up to the board.
He said that they have sent 35 Ceneco engineers to the University of the Philippines to be trained on term sheet, power and technical matters.
From there, the Ceneco engineers have seen the big discrepancy on the steam cost between Green Core and Unified Leyte. Green Core charges P2.83 while the standard steam rate is P1.70.
And Green Core manifested that it will withdraw from the agreement if ERC decides that its price should be below P4.70 per kilowatt.
“We feel responsible to the consumers. Thus our engineers made a good decision to go on with the Unified Leyte contract at P3.80 per kilowatt hour as compared to Green Core’s P4.80 charges,” he said.
As to the intermediate load need of Ceneco, PEDC took up the risk to put up a bunker fired plant in Iloilo which President Benigno Aquino III himself inaugurated a week ago.
The public should understand the three types of loads that Ceneco needs, namely the base load that operates 24 hours; the intermediate load for 12 hours and the peak load, which supplies power from three to four hours only, Gasambelo said.
He said that it would be improper to compare power rates between hydro, coal and geothermal sources of power, as well as rates between base, intermediate and peak loads.
On Roy Cordoba
Gasambelo said that Cordova should be grateful to Ceneco for being his former employer. He resigned from the cooperative last February and all his benefits were provided and paid.
“This is very sad that a retired employee will do this to his former employer. Instead of conducting misinformation, he should be grateful enough to Ceneco. Ceneco was unnecessarily burdened with explaining the misinformation that he made. Is this the way he reciprocates
Ceneco, his former employer?” Gasambelo asked.
Ceneco, his former employer?” Gasambelo asked.
Published in the Sun.Star Bacolod newspaper on April 11, 2011.
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