The National Electrification Administration asked the Palawan Electric Cooperative to allow the state-run agency to resolve the power situation in Palawan province.
NEA administrator Edgardo Masongsong made the statement after Paleco expressed concern over the agency’s move to appoint an acting general manager to oversee the power utility’s operations.
“Despite its status as an electric cooperative registered with the Cooperative Development Authority, the NEA will not stand idly by. We will exercise the agency’s inherent jurisdiction over Paleco as it has the technical capability to turn things around in Palawan and for Palawan member-consumer-owners,” Masongsong said.
Masongsong designated Engr. Nelson Lalas as project supervisor and acting general manager of Paleco on Dec, 10. Lalas was tasked to manage the day-to-day operations of Paleco and to ensure the efficient delivery of electric service to its member-consumer-owners.
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier expressed his disappointment over the worsening power supply problem in Palawan, and warned Paleco of government takeover if frequent service interruptions in the province were not solved by the end of the year.
Paleco, for its part, outlined a range of issues in providing reliable electricity service to its MCOs, which included the delay in the approval of its capital expenditure plan by the Energy Regulatory Commission.
Paleco put on hold its planned upgrading of distribution lines pending approval of its capex application.
Paleco also proposed to install substations in strategic places in Puerto Princesa City and in the southern part of Palawan and put up a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system to improve the power supply reliability in the province.
The electric cooperative said it filed its application for capex program in March 2017 but has yet to receive its approval from the ERC.
“We all know that electric industry is a regulated business controlled by the government, particularly the ERC. We cannot implement the said major projects without the approval of the ERC,” Paleco said in its position paper.
Pending ERC approval, the Paleco board passed a resolution requesting the ERC to allow the EC to implement some of the projects as emergency capex included in the application, such as the purchase of the SCADA system and the installation of two substations in Puerto Princesa.
Another concern of Paleco was the construction of transmission lines of the National Power Corp. and upgrading of its substations to augment its existing capacities.
Paleco also said different government laws, rules and regulations were hindering the implementation of the electrification projects in the province.
It noted the delays in the processing and issuance of necessary permits like the environmental compliance certificates and electrical permits from the local government.
Paleco said the road widening projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways were also contributing to the causes of interruptions in electrical service in the province.
“The road widening is an excellent project because this will boost the progress of the City of Puerto Princesa and the province of Palawan. However, Paleco’s operations were greatly affected due to the need for the relocation of affected poles which in turn result to a series of power interruptions,” Paleco said.
The local power utility also sought the national government’s assistance to get Palawan’s rightful share in the Malampaya project to accelerate the electrification projects in the province.
Paleco is the lone power distributor of Puerto Princesa City and 18 municipalities, serving 137,277 consumers as of June 2018.