BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
Konsyumer Negros, a consumers’ energy group, will also question before the Department of Energy the new agreement between the Central Negros Electric Cooperative and Kepco-Salcon Power Corporation for the delivery of the power base load supply of the coop for the next 10 years.
Grid Alila, Konsyumer Negros coordinator, said they will ask Ceneco to furnish them copies of the minutes of the April 12 bidding where Kepco won and is expected to supply 20 megawatts of electricity, at P3.29 per kilowatt-hour, until 2030, that he said is expensive.
Konsyumer Negros earlier questioned the current contract between Ceneco and Kepco for the delivery of 40MW base load power supply since 2009 that it said is detrimental to the consumers.
Recently, Ceneco extended the current contract with Kepco because they could not proceed with a new contract considering that there is a petition from Konsyumer Negros at the DOE.
Ceneco general manager Danny Pondevilla said that, instead of continuing the delivery of 40MW baseload supply, they opted to lower it to 20MW.
‘TWO EVILS’
Alila reiterated that they are against the new agreement between Kepco and Ceneco and are not in favor of extending the contract of the electric cooperative with the Korean power supplier because it is as if “dealing with two evils”.
He said that what they are pushing is the change of terms and an emergency power supply agreement where Ceneco can just buy power as needed, instead of being locked in a contract for years.
Alila added that if the plant is down, the customer will still need to pay the electricity cost. That, he said, is unfair.
Meanwhile, Konsyumer Negros is supporting the move of Power Watch Negros in seeking a congressional inquiry on the one-year extension of the current agreement between Kepco and Ceneco.
Power Watch secretary general Wennie Sancho said that, instead of extending the agreement with Kepco for the supply of the 40MW base load, Ceneco should have acted on the recommendations of the Third Party Bids and Awards Committee to have a new contract with the power supplier. Pondevilla said they welcome the congressional inquiry so they can at least have a fair venue that could decide issues intelligently and where all parties can be properly heard.*
