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STATE-OWNED National Power Corp. (Napocor) has inked a deal for the
rehabilitation of the Albay Electric Cooperative (ALECO).
Both parties signed on Thursday a one-year
operation and maintenance contract to address the distributor’s
P1.6-billion obligations to Napocor as well as its runaway system
losses, which were estimated at 23 percent of total output.
Based in Legaspi City, ALECO services the entire
Albay province, including the towns of Daraga, Camalig, Manito, Tiwi,
Tabaco and Guinobatan, as well as the island of Rapu Rapu.
Under the contract, Napocor will review and
audit the management procedures of ALECO to improve its system’s
efficiency. This, in turn, is expected to improve the
cooperative’s revenues and enable it to pay off its debts.
Because of delays in the company’s payments to
Napocor, it had to cut electricity supply in the cooperative’s
service area.
The contract also calls for the National
Transmission Corp. to help ALECO bring down its system losses from
23 percent to 14 percent within a year.
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has set a
cap of 14 percent for electric cooperatives’ system losses, which
they can pass on to consumers. They have to absorb any amount beyond
this threshold.
Prior to the signing of the contract, Napocor
had formed an ALECO rehabilitation team, which was tasked to
implement and monitor the cooperative’s rehabilitation program.
The rehabilitation program aims to improve the
reliability of ALECO’s distribution system, which has been damaged
by a number of typhoons, and enable it to provide adequate and
dependable power supply to its customers.
-- Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo
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