April 5,
2020 - 12:00am
MANILA,
Philippines — More Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) has started the
rollout of its P1.8-billion modernization program for Iloilo City’s aged
distribution system.
Energy
Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella said the DOE is hopeful that Ilonggos
will finally get a better service from MORE Power after it replaced Panay
Electric Co. (PECO), which had operated the city’s electricity distribution
system for 96 years.
Mario Marasigan, director of the DOE’s Electric
Power Industry Management Bureau, said the DOE will conduct validation work on
the modernization program as soon as the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) is
lifted.
MORE
Power president and COO Roel Castro assured Iloilo City Mayor Geronimo Treñas
and the city’s residents that the company will work on providing a reliable,
safe and cheap supply of electricity.
He said
the company will start with the replacement of all electric meters in the city
with new meters that have been approved and had passed the standards of the
Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) as a means of reducing the technical system
losses paid for by Ilonggos in their monthly bill.
As of
2019, PECO had recorded system losses, or the amount of electricity lost in the
inefficient distribution because of faulty lines and equipment or from
pilferage, of 9.03 percent or way above the 6.5 percent cap that could be
charged to customers set by the ERC for privately-owned distribution utilities,
ERC records showed.
Among the
equipment that need to be replaced or rehabilitated are 119 transformers all
over the city that were found to be abnormally overheating, an indication of
overloading, he said.
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