The legal counsel of the Utilities Consumers Alliance Negros yesterday said they welcome the decrease in Central Negros Electric Cooperative’s rates by P2.0816 per kilowatt hour to be applied on the November bill, but still want the power firm to be more transparent.

Vicente Petierre lll, said yesterday that it is nice to hear that the generation cost of Ceneco dropped. “We should be thankful to the generation companies for lowering the rates,” he said.

The UCAN, meanwhile, wants Ceneco to be transparent not only in the decreases in generation costs but also in its increases, Petierre said.

Ceneco announced last week that the residential rate for the November 2014 billing period is P8.2481/kWh, a drop from last month’s P10.3297/kWh.

It said the P2.0816 decrease per kilowatt hour will be applied to the November bill.

This will translate into P208.16 savings on electricity bill for household customers consuming 100kWh per month. For consumersaveraging 200 and 300 kWh per month, bigger savings can be enjoyed at P416.32 and P624.48, respectively, the press release said.

Meanwhile, Petierre said UCAN will send a demand letter to Ceneco asking for its financial statements so they can help the electric cooperative, that based on the assessment of the National Electrification Administration, has been downgraded from category A to Yellow B, which means it is in a critical state.

He said the main issue involves the systems loss that has reached about 16 percent, that Ceneco will be answerable for if this is not reduced.

Ceneco president Arnel Lapore said their systems loss as of September had reached about P91 million which is the biggest so far. They are alarmed by the condition of Ceneco so the Board of Directors decided to take action.

The Board has asked Ceneco general manager Sulpicio Lagarde last week to answer the findings of NEA.

Lapore said there were six parameters, identified by NEA where Ceneco failed.

He said category Yellow B is critical. Next, Ceneco will be considered as an ailing electric cooperative and, under Republic Act 10531, NEA can assume jurisdiction and take over its operation.

Lagarde had said that while it is true that the systems loss increased last April due to power pilferage, they were able to penalize the concerned individuals caught tapping electricity from street lights during night time, particularly in the slum areas.

He said they are doing their best to arrest the increase in the systems loss and its significant reduction could be felt best in the October bill of consumers.

Lagarde said pilferage forms part of the systems loss. The capability of CENECO to provide good service to its consumers depends on the repair, rehabilitation and maintenance of its system and facilities.*CGS

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