Negros Electric and Power Corp. (NEPC) vowed to bring reliable and uninterrupted electric service to consumers after the House Committee on Legislative Franchises preliminarily approved House Bill 9310 granting it a power distribution franchise.
The franchise will enable NEPC to establish and maintain an electric power distribution system in key cities such as Bacolod, Silay, Talisay and Bago as well as the municipalities of Murcia and Don Salvador Benedicto in Negros Occidental and ensure a continuous and uninterrupted supply of electricity in the franchise area.
The hearing was chaired by Parañaque Rep. Gus Tambunting.
PBA Partylist Rep. Margarita Nograles moved for the approval in principle of the bill, subject to style and subject to the submission of documents from the Energy Regulatory Commission, National Electrification Administration, Securities and Exchange Commission, Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO) and Primelectric Holdings Inc.
Primelectric president Roel Castro vowed to submit documents required by the committee. Primelectric is a company led by businessman Enrique Razon Jr.
Castro said there is an urgent need to improve electric services in Negros Occidental, given the issues faced by CENECO consumers.
“The electric service is not really that good; they have frequent brownouts, and when I say ‘frequent’, it’s normal to say that it’s daily. It takes them months to comply when you apply for a new connection. There’s a lot of complaints, and over and above that, their system loss is already beyond the cap. And when the systems loss is above the cap, it means that it is being passed on to the bottom line of consumers, and CENECO is already losing P20 to P30 million a month,” Castro said.
CENECO has been in existence for 48 years and has seven years remaining in its current franchise or up to 2030.
CENECO signed a joint venture agreement (JVA) with Primelectric, a subsidiary of More Electric and Power Corp., a distribution utility that operates in Iloilo City, to improve its services.
The JVA led to the formation of NEPC. Under the JVA, CENECO will retain 30-percent ownership, while Primelectric will purchase 70 percent of its assets.
Castro said NEPC has the ability to bring significant enhancements to Bacolod and Central Negros, drawing from their successful experience in Iloilo.
“With all confidence, I am saying that because we were able to do that in Iloilo. In the last three years, we were able to bring down systems loss to only 5 percent. We also curtailed the duration of interruptions by over 90%. In terms of rates, our rate is the lowest within the region,” he said.
Castro said the number of Iloilo City customers increased from 62,000 to 93,000 over three years.
“I would say that the approach to rehabilitate and make a turnaround is something we have done in Iloilo, and now we aim to do the same in Negros,” Castro said.
He said the biggest contributor to the improvement in Iloilo is the major capital expenditures.
“The investment, combined with the approach, is something that we are confident we can replicate in Central Negros if given a chance by Congress to have a franchise,” Castro said.