Wednesday, May 07, 2008 LGUs urged to attend power forum
NEGROS Occidental local government units (LGUs) were urged to attend the power forum Wednesday to present their respective problems.
The forum, to be attended by Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Angelo Reyes and National Transmission Corporation (Transco) president Arthur Aguilar, aims to face the problems on electricity supply and rate head-on. It is jointly conducted by DOE, Transco, and the National Power Corporation (Napocor) and would be held at the Natures' Village in Talisay City at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Governor Isidro Zayco is also urging power cooperatives, businesses, consumer groups and the civil society, among others, to attend. "I will attend myself and look forward that all LGU executives and stakeholders attend as well, air out their sentiments on the current power situation in the province and more importantly, propose appropriate solutions."
Zayco's call was prompted by waves of complaints from consumers of the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) on intermittent brownouts and the power cooperative's "confusing responses" to the problem.
"Consumers, businesses, government and the electric cooperatives themselves are already seriously affected. Understandably, Ceneco receives the highest rate of complaints because of the consumption load it has to accommodate," Zayco added.
He cited malls, call centers, big subdivisions, neighboring cities and municipalities that Ceneco has to power up.
Ceneco president Roberto Montelibano meantime welcomes the forum as most appropriate and timely.
"This forum will continue to validate the reality and fact that power shortage is not Ceneco's doomsday invention. Neither are the load shedding and unscheduled brownouts coming from Ceneco," Montelibano stressed.
"It is a reality we all have to face and solve. The problem is at the source of electricity and at times, its transmission," he added. "Many times, Ceneco gets all the blame and the burden of explaining is on us, too. Now, the DoE, Napocor and Transco will sit down all together, hopefully all stakeholders will attend so that once and for all, issues are clarified, problems are identified and solutions can be formulated." (Gil Alfredo Severino)
