THE Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) has welcomed the move of the Department of Energy (DOE) ordering distribution utilities (DUs) to add a provisional penalty on power supply agreements (PSAs) for generation companies that fail to supply power capacity.
Ceneco Board President Arnel Lapore said that DUs like electric cooperatives should collect from generation utilities for power supply shortfall provided it is incorporated in the Energy Regulations Commission (ERC) rulings.
Lapore cited section 3 of the DOE Circular 2015-06-0009 released Monday that “PSA should contain provision for allowances and penalties to clearly define the responsibilities and obligations of the generation company in case the delivery of electric supply is not fulfilled due to delays in the commercial operation and/or occurrence of any forced outages.”
He said, however, that allowance and penalties should be consistent with the PSA rules to be promulgated yet by the ERC.
Based on the circular, the DOE noted that the penalty provision should amount to the cost of the replaced power.
It said that annual allowance outages, on the other hand, were required not to exceed the number of days allowed by the PSA rules.
Aside from the power generation-related requirements, distribution utilities should also consider a provision on their PSAs that will automatically reduce contracted quantities due to the possible migration of its contestable customers, who have a power consumption of one megawatt within their franchise area, it added.
Recently, power plant outages nearly caused widespread brownouts in Luzon due to the breakdown of several power plants.
The Ceneco president said that it has not affected Visayas as he clarified that the series of power interruptions in areas of Negros Occidental covered by Ceneco were mostly due to maintenance activities to ensure stability of its distribution lines.