Sunwest Water and Electric Co. Inc. (SUWECO) said Friday it would scale down operations starting Oct. 5 because the National Power Corp. (NPC) deferred payments on its subsidy billings.
Some of the overdue payments date back to May, SUWECO said in a statement. Despite sending subsidy billings to NPC since then, the submissions were partially unprocessed and unpaid, it said.
The company said its attempt to transmit the subsidy billing for August also failed, bringing the cumulative outstanding amount due to SUWECO to more than P285 million.
The issue stems from a January decision by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) that dismissed an application by First Catanduanes Electric Cooperative Inc. (FICELCO) and SUWECO to amend their electricity supply agreement (ESA).
SUWECO said it filed a motion for reconsideration with the ERC in March but has yet to receive a ruling.
The company reiterated to NPC that its motion was still pending and that its decision was not yet final. Under the terms of the universal charge for missionary electrification (UCME) agreement, deductions from billing collections are not permitted.
NPC has not responded to SUWECO, forcing the power generator to scale down its operational schedule through rotational brownouts averaging up to three hours per day, the company said.
“We are hoping for the understanding of the thousands of member-consumers of FICELCO who will be directly affected by the brownouts,” said SUWECO business unit head Floro Barrameda. “We have done everything in our control to prevent this, but unfortunately, NPC has taken a position adverse to the member-consumers of FICELCO by its refusal to honor its obligations.”
Barrameda said that while SUWECO remains committed to providing reliable power to Catanduanes residents at a reasonable cost, the lack of subsidy settlements by NPC has resulted in operational constraints.
“We are not comfortable in collecting the full rate of electricity or the true cost generation rate to the member-consumers for FICELCO since the rate will be higher and burdensome on them,” he said.
