There was no intention to write a series on the power situation here in Central Negros, but after the articles ‘Power Play’ and ‘Power Struggle’, there is one more title popped into mind as I was pondering my next article. So, since I already had a title, I might as well go with it and make this a 3-part series on power.
‘Power Play’ discussed my concerns on how the Central Negros Electric Cooperative, classified as Mega Large and formerly ranked Triple A by the National Electrification Administration, was sold off via JVA by its own board of directors who were supposed to be its stewards. ‘Power Struggle’ pointed out how the recent widespread power outages in southern Bacolod City, while unfortunate for those who had to endure almost a week of it, could be good for us as it puts Negros Power Corporation, the new owner who gobbled up our Mega Large and AAA but suddenly “ailing” cooperative, on the back foot, which means it will hopefully now have to put its best foot forward in order to make up for its opening month booboo.
In ‘Power Failure’ let’s talk about the death of CENECO and what it means for us now that the cooperative has been replaced by a private corporation.
First thing’s first. CENECO is dead. While under the JVA, it still owns 30 percent of the new corporation, it gets the coop basically nothing when it comes to the company’s big decisions. It is now firmly in the passenger seat (or is the child car seat a more appropriate term). If it’s any consolation it will still partake of the profits that are sure to be made by what was its mega large monopoly in Central Negros. How we, the members of that coop, can enjoy that benefit is not very clear.
How it died doesn’t matter anymore. Whether it died of natural causes or if it was murdered in its sleep by its caregivers, nobody really loved it enough to care anyway. It doesn’t matter because death, just like its sale, is final and irreversible. As the sari-sari store says, no return, no exchange. The contract has been signed, price paid, and sales commissions given.
Did CENECO deserve to die? Maybe. It was not doing well as a coop anyway, because even if it was ranked AAA, the kind of service we were getting was terribly poor. The electricity it delivered was of poor quality, often low voltage and constantly fluctuating, as well as terribly unreliable, with scheduled 8-hour brownouts affecting large swathes of its service area every almost every other weekend, not to mention the annoying unscheduled ones. Despite being terribly managed and run, the cooperative as a body totally failed to exact accountability and responsibility from the stewards and representatives that they supposedly voted in. Decades of inefficiency, lack of vision and ambition by the management team, and apathy by the cooperative members, who thought complaining on FB could be considered “action” led to its inevitable fate.
If you come to think of it, CENECO’s failure is our failure. We had a AAA, Mega Large coop that was capable of making money hand over fist. As a coop, it was a non-profit, meaning all the cash it collected every month could and should have been spent on upgrades and improvements, until the point comes when everything is already in tip top shape, then the members should enjoy the benefits of a well-run, uber efficient and mega reliable electric coop that passes on the savings by providing electricity at lower prices, right?
Despite that potential, we watched idly by as it was run to the ground, neither fielding qualified candidates nor voting during district elections, not bothering to scrutinize what kind of talent was managing our coop, utterly failing demand in the proper forum that they do better, because alas, a rant on social media is not the proper forum. That is our failure and the price is our stake in what could have been a great thing, had we taken more ownership in it.
That dream is over. We lost our chance to be part of a non-profit electric coop. The stewards we put in place to guard and guide it, sold it instead. Because they couldn’t hack it, they sold it. Who would’ve thought that there are absolutely no qualified and competent electrical engineers and managers in Central Negros capable of turning around CENECO?
CENECO failed us and we failed it. This is a story of failure at all levels, to the benefit of capitalism.
If it’s any consolation, Negros Power needs to provide power to make the money it projects to make from its purchase of one of the few AAA, Mega Large franchises in the land. The reason why it speaks of billions in CAPEX and upgrades is not because it is a charitable institution, but because it will surely make a handsome profit from those investments. Whatever they spend, before and after the acquisition of CENECO, they know they will ultimately make back because they now have an electricity distribution business model that is foolproof and bullet proof.
The bottom line is that we are no longer coop members, but customers, and while we can tell ourselves that we are always right, let us not forget that for such corporations, profit is the real king.
If you come to think of it, maybe that is one good thing about changing service providers from non-profit to for-profit. Since electricity needs to flow for the profits to grow, it hopefully means less brownouts under NEPC. So, if that is all you wanted, then I guess whatever we did or allowed to be done to CENECO wasn’t so bad after all.*
