MORE Power urged to improve service

By Lenie Lectura July 15, 2020

https://businessmirror.com.ph/2020/07/15/more-power-urged-to-improve-service/

The Iloilo Economic Development Foundation (ILEDF) has called on More Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) to implement the necessary “corrective measures” to improve the power distribution service in Iloilo.

In a statement, the business group said Iloilo City is now confident that MORE Power will fix the distribution system to give the city better electricity service.

It also expressed concern about the potential impacts of the current legal tussle between MORE Power and Peco (Panay Electric Co.).

“ILEDF is confident that MORE Power remains true to its commitment to provide transparent service,” the business group’s Executive Director Francis Gentoral, said.

Also, it is hopeful that MORE Power will conduct “corrective maintenance on the existing distribution facilities which had fallen into such serious state of disrepair brought about by years of neglect and lack of capital investments.”

It also asked Peco to accept it has lost the electricity distribution business and move on to spare the city the ongoing struggle to push out the new distribution utility.

“ILEDF calls for unity in the face of the global health crisis and for Peco to accept the things it can no longer change—expired franchise, revoked CPCN, revoked Mayor’s Permit—for the whole of Iloilo City to move forward and level up as envisioned by the city government,” it added.

Similarly, the Iloilo City Loop Alliance of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association headed by Raymundo Parcon lauded MORE Power for  “diligently doing their upgrading and comprehensive preventive maintenance in all its substations and upgrading its distribution lines.”

The business group noted that for the first time, “Iloilo City consumers…finally, enjoyp[ed] a [per] kilowatt-hour [kWh] rate of less than P10 when MORE Power took over as distribution utility” as Iloilo City had recorded one of the highest power rates in the entire Philippines for more than 15 years under Peco.

ILEDF earlier commissioned Singapore-based electricity distribution expert and consulting firm WSP to undertake a review of the city’s power distribution performance in 2010.

Based on the study, WSP recommended significant investments in the city’s distribution system to provide the business and industry sector’s requirements.

Another study, conducted in 2018, noted that “the services of Peco lag behind what distribution utilities [DUs] in key Philippine cities like Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao, provide.”

“The gap widens even more when the comparison is made with DUs in the Asean region,” it said.