DAMAGED. The damaged submarine cable of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP). The Iloilo City government and business groups in the metro appealed for the Energy Regulatory Commission to take action as the damaged cable has caused an increase in power rate. (Photo from NGCP FB page)
ILOILO CITY – The local government here and business groups have urged the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to intervene regarding the damaged submarine cable of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) that is causing an increase in the power rate in Western Visayas.
Iloilo City Mayor Jerry P. Treñas, in a letter dated Sept. 9 addressed to Agnes Devanadera, appealed for a “swift and decisive action” to address the concern.
“This maybe in the form of regulatory intervention in the pricing mechanisms of the energy market or mandating the NGCP to resolve the problem with the submarine cable at the soonest,” he said.
One of the 138 kilovolts (kV) high voltage submarine cables of the NGCP connecting Cebu and Negros was damaged during the dredging and rechanneling activities undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) along Bio-os River, Barangay Jagna, Amlan, Negros Oriental in June this year.
The damage reduced the transmission capacity of the submarine cable to 90 megawatts or 50 percent of its capacity.
“We consumers are depending on you to resolve this matter soonest. Fairness requires that the negligence of the DPWH or the NGCP should not penalize the consumers of Iloilo City by increase in rates,” the mayor added.
More Electric and Power Corporation (MORE Power) billed Iloilo City residential consumers at PHP7.99 per kilowatt hour (kWh) in August, an increase of PHP1.55 from its July rate of only PHP6.45/ kWh.
The mayor added that he was informed by the distribution utility that the rate will further rise to around PHP10/ kWh in September.
In a previous interview, MORE Power spokesperson Jonathan Cabrera said that they purchased electricity from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), which has an expensive rate since they cannot fully source from their supplier in a geothermal plant-based in Leyte.
The Iloilo Economic Development Foundation Inc, (ILEDF) in a statement dated Sept. 8 said that it is “unfortunate” that such incident happened at a time when electricity is critical to response efforts in this pandemic.
“While the NGCP and the DPWH assure their stakeholders that all hands are on deck to restore the affected facility and mitigate the impacts, we would like to appeal to you to intervene in addressing the power rate issue,” said ILEDF chairperson Terence Uygongco, seeking ERC's help.
The Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Iloilo Inc also sent a similar appeal on Thursday, hoping that the rate would revert to PHP6.45/kWh rate. (PNA)
