Will it be a bleak, dark Christmas?Less than three months from now or about December 22nd this year, the province of Albay could be out of electric service, again. This is the scenario if local end-user power retailer Albay Power Energy Corp. (APEC) will get disconnected from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) before the end of the year simply for failure in the settlement of its debts..
Less than three months from now or about December 22nd this year, the province of Albay could be out of electric service, again.
This is the scenario if local end-user power retailer Albay Power Energy Corp. (APEC) will get disconnected from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) before the end of the year simply for failure in the settlement of its debts.
With 185,324 commercial, industrial and residential customers, the electric company has a low record of 30 per cent collection efficiency.
It must be recalled that hastily formed APEC took over the operations of cash-strapped Albay Electric Cooperative (ALECO) on February 26, 2014.
From the time of takeover up to now, the new power company disclosed it can not even afford to pay its monthly bill charged from the NGCP.
It is the San Miguel Global Energy Power Holdings Corp., APEC’s parent company, which has been subsidizing the payment of monthly bills.
Finance chief Miguel Gopengco confirmed that since San Miguel took over, it has been subsidizing APEC’s average monthly billing of P215 million from NGCP.
Fed up with the financial situation of its subsidiary, San Miguel urged APEC to increase its collection efficiency by at least 50 percent up until December this year. It has warned subsidy for the monthly billings will be cut off.
Gopengco laments that only 3 out of 10 of the total number of consumers are paying regularly which is approximately 55,597 of the 185,324 consumers.
He said the management is planning to strictly implement its one-bill policy.
During the takeover, APEC inherited P4 billion debt from NGCP. But the new management alleges it is not their obligation to pay the loan of ALECO.
APEC has already accumulated P1.6 billion of uncollected bills from the consumers and incurred P200 million system losses.
Before the takeover, the new mangement has knowledge of the goings on in ALECO. Two years with APEC, yet it has not made any efffective corrective measure, so far.
The power end-user retailer is continuously confronted with a monthly erratic system losses of 25 percent due to illegal connections, defective (kilowatt-hour) meters and other pilferages.
Technical head Mark Lucilo said every one percent system loss is equivalent to more than one million pesos.
Lucilo said APEC will also implement massive changing and clustering of meters and line clearings which could reduce losses.
Until after APEC can show improvement from its sagging service, majority of the consumers who refuse to settle their accounts will be hard to convince to pay on time.
The domestic airport in Pili serving metropolitan Naga and the provinces of Camarines Sur and Camarines Norte will soon be capable of catering to evening flight take-off and landing operations. The Naga airport, which is operated by the Air transportation Office (ATO) of the Department of Transportation and Communications, has […]
To get a good grasp of the illegal immigrant crisis in the United States (America), and in Europe (European Union), we are sharing below two video coverage, one for each. These are different takes on the massive migrant caravan that began marching from Central America, mostly coming from Honduras, with […]
The town of Daraga in Albay province, has total assets of P1.029 billion making it to the top of the list among the richest municipal local government units (LGU) for 2017, besting 106 others in Bicol region, according to the Commission on Audit (COA). Daraga, aside from topping the list, […]
Ownership of the University of Nueva Caceres change hands. Kind of. For decades, the Hernandez family of Naga city and Libmanan town used to own and manage the first and largest university in Bicol. But not anymore as the education arm of the Ayala Corporation, the AC Education, Inc., (AEI) […]
Naga City, Bicol’s financial, business, educational and religious capital now has a total net worth of over P4.675 billion, making it the richest local government unit (LGU) in the region, according to the Commission on Audit (COA). The City of Ligao, in Albay province, followed far second, with a total […]
We are having a good doze of information on the proposed creation of new (sic) province of Nueva Camarines, thanks to the gerrymandering ideas of some congressmen who may have less things productive and constructive in their mind sets.
Megamouth shark found in Burias pass preserved for public viewing LEGAZPI CITY, Feb. 14 — A dead fifteen-footer male megamouth shark (Megachasma Pelagios) named “Totthless” was fished in Burias Pass by Albay fishermen early in the week. The huge fish underwent a necropsy or autopsy in Albay Park and Wildlife […]
 will get disconnected from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) before […]</p>
<div class=){kind=link}
You must log in to post a comment.