ILOILO City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog has opposed the National Grid Corporation’s (NGCP) proposal to purchase facilities of Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC) at Barangay Ingore, La Paz district.
Mabilog said NGCP spokesperson lawyer Cynthia Alabanza visited him at the city hall last Friday to present the corporation’s position in fully implementing the provisions of Republic Act 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) of 2001.
He said Senate President Franklin M. Drilon also expressed his opposition to the plan of NGCP to control all transmission facilities in the Visayas by connecting power distributor Panay Electric Company (Peco) to the Visayas Grid of NGCP.
He said Peco is not directly connected to the Grid and connecting it would add cost of some P0.75 to P1 in power rate.
Peco has a congressional franchise to distribute power in Iloilo City and has embedded transmission lines, while a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) was perfected since more than three years ago to buy blended power mix from PEDC.
PEDC has a connection to the Visayas Grid via the NGCP Sta. Barbara substation facility through its PPA with other distributing power utilities in Panay Island such as the electric cooperatives.
PEDC is a subsidiary of the Global Business Power Corp (GBPC) and controlled by Metro Bank, while NGCP is a partner of Monte Oro Grid Resources Corporation, a subsidiary of Henry Sy Jr.’s One Taipan Holdings Inc., which also controls shares of Banco De Oro.
The mayor said a pending case will have to be decided to allow the entry of NGCP in the city. An option must also be decided on NGCP’s plan to connect PEDC to the Grid.