Beleaguered Central Negros Electric Cooperative general manager Sulpicio Lagarde Jr. asked the Energy Regulatory Commission not to grant the provisional approval of the negotiated Electric Power Purchase Agreement between Ceneco and FDC Utilities Incorporated saying this would be disastrous to Ceneco consumers.

Lagarde filed the urgent motion for non-issuance of provisional relief before the ERC in his personal capacity as a bonafide member-consumer of Ceneco on March 16.

On Dec. 4, 2014, Ceneco signed with FDCUI an EPPA for a contracted demand of 20MW from Dec. 26, 2014 to June 25, 2016, to ensure continuous supply and security of electricity within its franchise area.

A provisional approval of the EPPA with indicative rate from ERC will allow FDCUI to perform its obligation to supply the requirements of Ceneco and for it to receive power from the plant.

The provisional authority will allow Ceneco to charge and collect the fees enumerated in the EPPA, and authorize it to pass on the full amount to its member-consumers, the application said.

In his urgent motion, Lagarde said that, in gross disregard of their sworn duty to protect the consumers, the Ceneco Board has caused the approval of a base load contract with FDCUI for a 20 MW power, despite the existence of 40 MW plus 24 MW supplement from KEPCO and 20 MW from Greencore geothermal or a total baseload of 84 MW to answer the baseload requirement of Ceneco for 62 MW of power.

Lagarde said that, despite the fact that Ceneco is already over-contracted by 20 MW for its baseload requirements of 62 MW, the respondents have caused the further approval of another 20 MW of power from DECUI without the benefit of deliberation, nor recommendation from the office of the general manager to the detriment of the consumers who will pay for such unutilized contracted energy.

Therefore, any provisional authority to be granted on this project would be disastrous to the consumers as they would be tasked to pay for power which can never be used by Ceneco and instead be sold in the monthly regular sell-back to WESM at a loss, and such loss is being shouldered by the member-consumers who are all paying for the same to their very own detriment, he added.*CGS

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