posted June 28, 2020 at
08:45 pm by Alena Mae S. Flores
Power
retailer MORE Electric and Power Corp. and the Iloilo City government led by
Mayor Jerry Treñas issued a stern warning to the alleged syndicate behind the
rising incidents of pilferage of electricity in the city.
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Power president Roel Castro said the huge number of illegal power connections
in the city was the biggest contributing factor to high electricity rates that
Iloilo residents paid under the old utility Panay Electric Co.
The
illegal connections caused overloading in the distribution system and damage to
equipment, including distribution lines and electricity transformers, he said.
“The
proliferation of illegal connections in the city, which has been a problem
since the time of the previous distribution utility, drives up systems losses
which are actually paid for legitimate consumers,” Castro said.
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said it was receiving two to three reports of illegal power connections every
day and a technical analysis showed there could be around 30,000 illegal power
connections that raised the total system losses to 20 percent.
Castro
said these illegal connections could account for as much as 20 megawatts of the
100 megawatts that Iloilo City consumes every day.
“Illegal
connections are the main causes of unscheduled brownouts because the lines and
transformers are overloaded. If we can lower the systems losses, it will
translate into lower rates. It also has aesthetic value because we will
minimize those illegal wirings that are attached to our distribution lines,”
Castro said.
He
said it was possible that an organized group was operating in the city to
profit from illegal power connections.
“[It
is] possible [that it is committed by an] organized group. It already became a
business. The syndicates have their assigned areas, or franchise so to speak.
We already identified them and in due time we will deal with them,” Castro
said.
Treñas
said the city government imposed severe penalties for those involved after the
arrest of two suspects found removing an electric meter of MORE Power in
Arevalo district.
“We would like to decrease the percentage of systems loss to lower the cost of
electricity in the city,” Trenas said.
The
two suspects, in a police investigation, admitted they attempted to dismantle
the electric meter on the orders of someone else who allegedly asked them to
transfer it to another place.
The
two suspects are now detained at the Arevalo police station and faces charges
for violating the Anti-Pilferage of Electricity Act and Theft of Electric
Transmission Lines/Materials Act of 1994.
“We
will apply the national law. All law enforcement agencies, PNP and City Hall
are supposed to implement the law. And I will implement the law. I have no
choice. I will file cases if need be. For the bail bond, amount is double the
amount of pilfered power. So it will be very harsh,” Treñas said.
He
urged Iloilo residents to stop pilfering electricity and apply for regular
power connections under MORE Power’s iKonek program, a joint program between
the city government and the distribution utility to go after power pilferers in
the city.
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Power also established a one-stop shop to process the application for regular
power connection accounts within 10 to 12 days.
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