Province-wide blackout in Albay due to P4-B unpaid bills

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The electric supply to the province was cut off at noon Tuesday – affecting at least 160,000 households – due to nearly P4 billion in unpaid bills

MANILA, Philippines – The provincial government of Albay aims to secure a reconnection of electricity supply to the province within two days after it was cut off by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) Tuesday, July 30.

The electric supply to the entire province was cut off at noon Tuesday – affecting at least 160,000 households – due to nearly P4 billion in debts that the Albay Electric Cooperative (Aleco) owed various creditors.

The Department of Energy (DOE) said the disconnection notice to Aleco was served by the NGCP, as ordered by the Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC).

PEMC, which handles the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), made the order after Aleco failed to pay its P56-million bill for the month of June.

Aleco spokesperson Hazel Morallos said the disconnection will continue until the electric cooperative settles its current bill, the Philippine News Agency reported.

Albay Gov Joey Salceda, in a statement posted on his official page on Facebook, said Aleco only had to pay the current bill, and could have avoided disconnection, which the province was able “to hold at bay for 15 years” with Napocor and for 3 years with PEMC.

The DOE, said Salceda, has imposed two conditions to Aleco: one, the cooperative has to disconnect its top 100 delinquent customers; two, it has to outline a rehabilitation plan to address its ballooning debt.

Out of the cooperative’s total debt, around P1 billion is owed to PEMC, while around P3 billion is owed to the NGCP, TransCo, Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp (PSALM), and the National Electrification Administration (NEA).

‘Working hard’ to restore power

Salceda said they aim to restore power to the province in as early as two days, but no more than one week.

“I am working hard and pleading with energy authorities and corporate boards to secure an “immediate selective reconnection” because a disconnection has inevitable disruptive economic impacts and bad signals,” Salceda wrote.

He also criticized the “oppressive rich” whom he accused of passing on the burden of the electricity debt.

“The poor who share no blame are made to pay for the sins of the oppressive rich who pursue unli-profit on the back of the ordinary working families,” he said in his statement.

“It would be worse, if this sorry event would not prompt long-term reforms to secure that these would not recur and if possible [make] Aleco…a positive force in Albay development,” he said.

“The Department of Energy (DOE) is continuously assisting ailing electric cooperatives (ECs) such as the Albay Electric Cooperative, Inc. (ALECO) to ensure the continued power service to their consumers and resolve their accumulated arrearages due the power generators and transmission service provider,” the DOE also said in a statement Tuesday.

In addition, Salceda said in another Facebook post, the Albay government has “no expertise” and is “not interested” in running the debt-ridden cooperative.

NEA is currently supervising Aleco after it incurred big losses back in 2011, caused by mismanagement, a high systems loss rate, and dilapidated infrastructure.

Aleco successfully staved off a province-wide disconnection back in June, after it failed to settle P170 million worth in bills in the preceeding 2 months.

The deferment of the electric supply cutoff was due to the request of the provinces’ mayors, who asked the DOE to give time for the cooperative to raise funds to pay the PEMC. – KD Suarez/Rappler.com


Mt. Mayon, Albay image via Shutterstock 

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