TUESDAY, 17 JULY 2012 19:35 LIZA T. AGOOT / CORRESPONDENT
BOKOD, Benguet—Qualified displaced residents from sitio Lebung, Hilltop, Camp Site, Sombrero and Ambangol in Ambuklao town, as well as Tower No. 5, Baloy, Camaya, Marian, Riverside and Hilltop in Binga, are set to receive a P300 subsidy each for their electric bill.
The families were displaced from the construction of the Binga and Ambuklao hydro-power plants in the province of Benguet.
This, after SN Aboitiz Power (SNAP)-Benguet, Beneco and the municipalities of Bokod and Itogon signed agreements formalizing the release of funds for projects under SNAP-Benguet’s Corporate Social Responsibility program.
The subsidy will be temporary and will end once the residents are connected to the Benguet Electric Cooperative. Once they are connected, the residents would have to pay their monthly electric bills just like the cooperative’s other customers.
SNAP Vice President for Corporate Services lawyer Michael Hosillos said under the agreement, which is now with the Department of Energy (DOE) for formalization, the qualified displaced families will receive the subsidy of 150 kilowatt-hours a month, which will be billed by the Beneco to the respective qualified beneficiary. The amount for the purpose will come from the electrification fund of SNAP, which it had remitted to the DOE. The balance of about P14 million from the ER-194 fund will be subsidized from the corporate social responsibility fund of the company, to be able to complete the P300 per family per month subsidy.
Hosillos explained that the subsidy is a commitment which the displaced families are entitled to receive.
Earlier, the qualified residents have been directly receiving electricity from SNAP and before that, from the National Power Corp. With the passage of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira), which specifically detailed the functions and bounds of the activities of the generation companies and those of distribution utilities, direct connection of households to the power source is no longer allowed.
With this legal prohibition, the residents should be connected with the distribution lines of Beneco.
Hosillos said that to be able to continue providing the subsidy, SNAP will release P300 each for the qualified displaced families as they can no longer and are not allowed to give electricity.
With this recent development, SNAP signed an agreement with Beneco, which will install the 230-kilovolt lines to the houses. This will also entail putting up new transformers, electric posts and other utility equipment, which will be borne by the electric cooperative as its counterpart in the agreement.
The subsidy, Hosillos said, is only for the qualified displaced families. Identification of who they are, the lawyer said, as well as the submission of other requirements, will have a limited period, thus those who cannot submit on time will not be included.
He said the company is setting up a one-stop shop for the purpose. This will help the qualified displaced families come up with the requirements.
Beneco legal counsel Delmar Cariño in a separate interview said that rewiring will be completed within 120 days.
The lawyer said that during the joint SNAP and Beneco public information drive held on July 5 and 6 in Binga and Ambuklao, respectively, the residents did not hide their discomfort of getting rewired by Beneco.
They raised the following issues: Why is SNAP letting them go? Can’t the wires be connected just the same to the dams so that the source of power would always be available? How reliable is Beneco’s system? Is Beneco’s system brownout-free?
Cariño said the residents were told that legal and technical reasons were behind SNAP’s decision to change the system.
“As correctly stated by engineer Rene Rivera, the head of the Ambuklao—Binga Community Electrification Project transition team, the law prohibits generation companies from getting involved in the distribution business. The power industry now has been unbundled and under the Epira, or Republic Act 9136, entities tasked with generating power must concentrate on that aspect. They are barred from dipping their hands into power distribution. This task is left to distribution utilities like Beneco, Mt. Province Electric Cooperative [the Ifugao Electric Cooperative].”
He said it would be technically implausible, costly and dangerous to avoid the grid and connect directly to the residents’ houses. He said Ambuklao’s 105-megawatt and Binga’s 120-megawatt capacities would not permit a direct supply of power. These capacities must be scaled down in order that the houses’ demand for a 220-voltage meter would be made available. “The power to be provided will come from the cooperative’s substations.”
Beneco said there would be no unjustified power interruptions once the two villages would be connected to the utility. source
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