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Saturday, January 14, 2006
PECO to rotate blackouts in city
By Lory Ann B. Bilbao
THE top officials of Panay Electric Company Inc. (Peco) laid out a plan to schedule a rotating blackout to allay a possible total darkness in the city after January 19.
Panay Power Corporation (PPC) said that on January 19, their bunker fuel would run out and so, they are unable to generate power. This is the same power that Peco distributes to the consumers.
Mayor Jerry P. Trenas told the media that this was the contention during his meeting Friday at the mayor's office with Representative Raul Gonzalez Jr., PPC, and business leaders.
Trenas said during the meeting, they were able to talk about certain remedies.
One is the interconnection works of Transco, which started the same day, connecting PPC to the Cebu-Negros-Panay Grid that runs five days and that power produce runs 15 megawatts (insufficient to the base load of 48 megawatts said Trenas). Power produce shall be consumed from 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. only.
Two, the power barge 101 from Mactan, which can provide 24 megawatts be transferred here instead of General Santos.
Lastly, for Peco to do scheduled rotating blackout to avert total darkness.
Can't afford
"PPC cannot afford to buy fuel from Pilipinas Shell after the 19th. PPC stated they can buy fuel only in March when Peco's collection from post-grant of Provisional Authority is turned over to PPC," Trenas said.
Shell Pilipinas and PPC are still in talks on what to do.
The PPC very recently claimed their fuel will last only until January 19, after Shell Netherlands confirmed that their fuel credit ends on that date.
Shell is requiring cash purchase after this date.
PPC stated then they are not sure whether they could still acquire fuel to operate.
Their failure to operate as the power producer of Peco would mean a shutdown of operations and blackout in the city, the PPC said.
Illegal Measures
Last January 12, lawyer Romeo P. Gerochi said that what the PPC and Peco are taking are "illegal measures by threatening the public that a blackout might happen."
Gerochi added the PPC has a Contractual Obligation with Peco, its sole power distributor in the city, which is to provide power to the latter and for it to operate and distribute the same to the consumers of the city otherwise or even at anytime, the government can take over its operations or even at no reasons at all for the sake of the consumers.
Dare
In a statement sent to Sun.Star Iloilo Friday, the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC)-Iloilo Chapter of which Gerochi is the chairman, challenged PPC and Peco to be "true to their blackout threat for them to know what will happen next."
"We also condemn the actions of Mayor Jerry Trenas consistently acting as the mouthpiece of these corporations. The Mayor does not provide solution to the problem by calling people in the national government with the hope that solutions will be employed right away. This kind of initiative is devoid of qualities of good governance and a clear practice of patronage politics," stressed Ted Ong, deputy secretary general of FDC.
"What Trenas needs to do is to compel PPC to accomplish their financial obligations to Shell Philippines. This is not a problem created by the consumers for majority of electricity consumers are religiously paying their monthly bills to Peco," Ong added.
FDC claims that there is no power crisis and that Trenas, PPC, and Peco are just painting the scenario.
"This crisis is not about shortage of power supply but rather a crisis between these companies because of their financial irregularities. This is the problem of an industry under a privatized set-up and monopolized by single players. They can manipulate a power crisis and hold the consumers hostage. This is happening all over the world and all over the country today. This is the reason why the Freedom from Debt Coalition is firmly against the continuous privatization of public utilities," concluded Ong.
Sun.Star Iloilo contacted Adrian Moncada, vice president of Mirant Philippines-PPC Friday but he refused to give any comment. (With a report from Hazel de los Reyes)
(January 14, 2006 issue)
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