Danessa Rivera (The Philippine Star)
- April 25, 2019 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Alsons Power
unit Western Mindanao Power Corp. (WMPC) is urging beleaguered Zamboanga City
Electric Cooperative Inc. (Zamcelco) to honor its obligations under a power
supply deal to resolve its power issues.
The power supply agreement (PSA)
between WMPC and Zamcelco is binding as it was provisionally approved by the Energy
Regulatory Commission (ERC), said Alsons Power vice president for project
development Joseph Nocos.
“The WMPC and Zamcelco PSA is
effective. It was issued a provisional authority. The three years of continued
operations have rendered the PSA effective,” he said.
However, WMPC was forced to stop its
operations last February because it had already exhausted its fuel reserve and
Zamcelco has not called the power supplier to dispatch supply for the city.
This is also because of the refusal
of Crowninvestment Holdings Inc. and Desco Inc.—the holder of investor
management contract (IMC) for Zamcelco—to settle contractual obligations and
pay for electricity already supplied and paid for by its consumers.
Zamcelco’s debt has already
ballooned to P467 million from October 2018 to February this year.
Nocos said 70 to 80 percent of
Zamcelco’s debt obligations to WMPC is fuel.
The non-payment of contractual
obligations has prevented WMPC from procuring the fuel needed to run its power
plant which provided the voltage support needed by Zamboanga City.
Since the forced
stoppage of WMPC’s operations, unscheduled power outages ranging from one to
six hours have become a daily occurrence in Zamboanga City as the National Grid
Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) has been struggling to maintain grid stability
in the Zamboanga Peninsula.
“Without the reactive
power support provided by WMPC, there will always be blackouts in the city
despite the abundance of power supply in the Mindanao grid,” Nocos said.
“The immediate solution
to the power problem in the city is to allow WMPC to operate its power plant
because it is designed to provide not only capacity but stability to the grid
as well – unlike Crown’s generator sets which are ineffective and expensive,”
he said.
Crowninvestments has
been justifying its refusal to pay by claiming that the WMPC-Zamcelco PSA is
not effective and that WMPC overcharged the EC.
According to the EC,
WMPC actually overbilled P441 million in the past three years which should be
refunded. It claimed that the conditions of the PSA have not yet been met,
which include the lack of final approval by the ERC and the attainment of an A
rating from the National Electrification Administration (NEA).
However, WMPC asserted
that these allegations had no contractual and legal bases.
“WMPC never overbilled
Zamcelco. The amounts billed and paid for were calculated in accordance with
the payment formula provided for in the PSA between Zamcelco and WMPC,” Nocos
said.
The PSA was implemented
by both Zamcelco and WMPC on Dec. 12, 2015, where in the power coop had called
on the power supplier to dispatch supply and the generator had been delivering
the energy requested.
It was only upon the
entry of Crown-Desco last January that the PSA was unilaterally stopped.
The deadlock between
WMPC and Zamcelco is scheduled for hearing at the ERC today.
Alsons Power Group is
the umbrella brand of the power business affiliates of the Alcantara Group.
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