Monday, November 12, 2007 P132-M loan set to upgrade power cooperative services
POWER services in the whole of the Kalinga-Apayao Electric Cooperative (Kaelco) would be upgraded once its application for authority to install a 11-MVA and a P132-million loan it applied is approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
Kaelco's application for provisional authority to implement major capital expenditure projects worth P500,000.00 and above as provided for under Republic Act 9136 includes the replacement of a 5 MVA substation the cooperative is using since it started operation several decades ago.
OIC Kaelco General Manager Corazon Tomas said the project, which would be implemented within a period of five years, is a loan applied from ERC amounting to P114 million. The 10 MVA substation alone is worth P32 million while the 14 subcomponents of the project have a total cost of P82 million.
Tomas said the upgrading would increase reliability and efficiency of power services in the province and the municipality of Conner in Apayao. However, she said power rate would also definitely increase at an estimate of P1.25 (Kaelco calculation) per kilowatt-hour to pay back the loan.
Engineer Bernard Odiem, Kaelco chief of Construction, Operation and Maintenance Section, said the upgrading is necessary to supply the energy demands of an increasing consuming public and to replace overloaded transformers, defective and old KWH meters, and rotten poles and cross arms. "This will also decrease systems loss."
Odiem said work would also cover the reconductoring of wires from Bulanao to Dagupan; the neutral substation to Liwan; and revamp of feeder III in Bulanao, Tabuk City. He said the project also aims to upgrade lines from Camalog to junction Pinukpuk; Catabbogan to Daga, Conner; Banban to Buluan (Conner); Karikitan to Caglayan (Conner); junction to Allaguia, Pinukpuk; Bantay to Dupag, Tabuk and dubstation to Cudal.
Finance Services Department OIC Severina Bustillo said Kaelco management attended the initial hearing and pre-trial conference on the proposal conducted by the ERC in Pasig City last October 18. She said RA 9136 or the Epira law prohibits electric cooperatives to implement projects costing P500,000 and above without the authority of the ERC.
"As a result of the hearing in Pasig City, a public consultation is slated on November 17 at Kaelco main office in Bulanao, Tabuk," Bustillo said. ERC technical men would further inspect and validate the project sites, she said.
Tomas said "the whole project cost may not be approved or maybe on a staggered basis."
She said ERC inspectors recommended that the amount of a sub-component project to be implemented within a year can be approved and so forth until the 5th year of implementation.
She said Kaelco is looking for grants to finance other components of the project to lessen the burden of the inevitable power rate increase after the project is completed.
