Wednesday, 25 April 2012
KIDAPAWAN CITY -- Small and medium traders in North Cotabato expressed dismay over a power cooperative’s announcement that the eight-hour daily rotating brownout would not end soon.
Power is off every day from 7 a.m. until noon and from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m.
"We were assured we would get over this crisis, but it seems forever," said Bernard Capilitan, a businessman from Kidapawan City.
Cotabato Electric Cooperative (Cotelco) spokesman Vincent Baguio said the cooperative is set to draw electricity from the power barge of Therma Marine Inc. (TMI) in Maco, Compostela Valley.
Augusto Sanoy, a tricycle driver from Barangay Singao, said he is spending much from buying candles and kerosene gas to light his home when brownout strikes at night.
The Cotelco wants to draw at least eight megawatts of power from the TMI’s power barge, as additional to its 15.4 megawatts of daily load dispatch from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
But the TMI is charging Cotelco too high, Baguio said. “Aside from that, they demand that we pay them in advance for the power we have not yet consumed."
The TMI is demanding Cotelco to issue a total of P18 million for the security bond amounting to P4 million and an advance payment of P14 million.
Baguio said TMI is set to charge Cotelco P16.11 per kilowatt of power, with some P4 increase as compared to what was approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
"This is hurting the electric cooperative so much. We are the most affected here," Baguio said.
The Cotelco sought help from the Department of Energy and the ERC for intervention as they found the demands set by the TMI as unreasonable.
"If this is not resolved soon, then, we will continue to experience eight hours of brownouts daily until May," Baguio said.
Baguio said Cotelco now has three options: first, it would heed to the demands of the TMI and charge its power consumers high electricity rates; second, it would press the National Government to dispatch the needed 26 megawatts from the two geothermal power plants at Mount Apo; and third, it would wait until the Pulangi-4 plant resumes operations in May.
Local officials, power consumers, and residents of North Cotabato are set to stage "Day of Mourning and Protest" on Friday over the power crisis besetting Mindanao.
The protesters said they will wear red shirts and arm bands to show their rage against the unresolved energy crisis.(Malu C. Manar of Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)
Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on April 26, 2012. source
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