Alfonso Cusi orders power cooperative in Palawan to improve service

• Source: https://www.philstar.com/business/2018/12/21/1878622/alfonso-cusi-orders-power-cooperative-palawan-improve-service
• Friday, December 21, 2018 12:00 am

By Danessa Rivera (The Philippine Star)

MANILA, Philippines — Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi has given Palawan’s sole power distributor until the end of the month to improve the power situation in the island.

The Department of Energy (DOE) plans to take over the operations of the beleaguered Palawan Electric Cooperative (PALECO) if power woes are not solved by the end of the year.

“I have given instructions that if PALECO will not shape up by the end of the month, the (government) will take over,” he said.

The government takeover will be done through the task force organized by the DOE and the National Electrification Administration (NEA), Cusi said.

“I cannot afford (power) service to be interrupted,” he said.

This follows President Duterte’s warning last month that the government would take over PALECO’s facilities if it cannot resolve the recurring power outages.

He has given PALECO until the end of the year to shape up or face takeover.

Commenting on the President’s pronouncement, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian backed the government’s plan to take over PALECO to solve the province’s worsening power supply problem.

Gatchalian said Palaweños have long complained about the lengthy rotational brownouts they have experienced in their province, and PALECO’s seemingly chronic inefficiency in coming up with solutions to the problem.

The Senate energy committee, which Gatchalian chairs, is holding a dialogue and a committee hearing with PALECO stakeholders to discuss the power situation and to determine the cause of the long brownouts in the province.

PALECO, which has the second largest franchise area in the country, provides power to Puerto Princesa City and 18 municipalities, serving a total of 135,284 consumers as of the end of April.

Citing data from NEA, Gatchalian said each PALECO consumer experienced an average of 126 power interruptions last year, which he said was beyond the NEA standard of 25 interruptions per consumer per year.

This resulted in an average of 16 hours of power interruption every month or a total of 187 hours last year, Gatchalian said.

Based on the NEA standard, the acceptable frequency of power interruption is 45 hours per consumer per year.