Power firm to increase rates

Sunstar Iloilo

POWER consumers in Iloilo Province will feel the brunt of power rate adjustment next month, with the Panay Electric Company (Peco) implementing an average of P2.70 increase per kilowatt hour.

The Energy Regulatory Commission has approved Peco’s application for rate increase which will take effect in September.

The current consumer’s rate of Peco is P7.30 per kilowatt hour (kwh) and is considered as the cheapest in Western Visayas.

Randy Pastolero, Peco vice-president for operations and general manager, said the adjusted price could reach P10 per kwh.

The Peco official also said that despite the increase, Peco still offers the cheapest price in the region where power rates of electric cooperatives averaged at P10.50 to P12 per kwh.

In a related development, Peco is working with Task Force Alambre of the City Government in getting rid of unsightly spaghetti electrical wires and cables along the city streets.

Pastolero said the electrical company is installing pre-stressed concrete poles to replace the old log electrical poles. The city service areas have more than 30,000 electric posts and some 7,000 are logs that have to be replaced.

However, Peco is only answerable to its electrical wires to be transferred into the new transmission poles. The cable companies and telecoms will have to transfer their own cables, Pastolero said.

Task Force Alambre headed by the city mayor’s executive assistant Francis Cruz has set the rehabilitation and clearing of unsightly electrical and cable wires in 55 days from August 3 to October 18, 2011.

Cruz said the task force will clear and rehabilitate the hanging wirings connected to 639 electrical poles that has alarmed city residents as eyesores and dangerous to pedestrians and motorists. (Lydia C. Pendon)