BACOLOD CITY — Rapid business growth in Negros Occidental, particularly in Bacolod City and its surrounding localities, continues to drive up the load requirement of Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO).
Sulpicio Lagarde Jr., general manager of CENECO, said Wednesday that with the ongoing and looming property developments in the areas they cover, the cooperative is growing its load requirement by up to 11 percent.
The power distribution utility caters to the largest number of electric consumers in the province, including those in cities of Bacolod, Bago, Talisay and Silay, and towns of Murcia and Salvador Benedicto.
CENECO has a maximum power demand of about 157 megawatts this year being supplied by four generation utilities which the cooperative has existing power supply agreements (PSAs).
In case of shortfall, power requirement outside the bilateral contract is automatically supplied by Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) as provided under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) Law.
“With regards to our power requirement, we are prepared for these developments because we are now one of the fastest growing electric cooperatives in the country,” Lagarde said.
Aside from the “forecasted” additional requirements brought by booming construction projects, CENECO is also preparing for load locators that are not in the forecast.
Lagarde said these are small business locators with power requirement of at least 250 to 300 kilowatts each.
In terms of number, these locators are quite big, and CENECO caters to at least 10 every month, he said, adding that they are also energizing at least 250 new house and lot packages monthly.
These packages, mostly low-cost housing, form part of the about 700 new connections every month.
“We are projecting that in the next three years, CENECO will be the largest electric cooperative in the country,” Lagarde said, adding that the cooperative was able to forecast and input the increase in demand through collaborations with various stakeholders, including the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry. (PNA)
