ILOILO CITY — The National Electrification Administration (NEA) will look into the individual power supply contract of the Aklan Electric Cooperative (Akelco) amid the expected drop in its power demand due to the impending closure of the island of Boracay.
In an interview at the sidelights of the inauguration of the Global Business Power (GBP) Institute for Energy (GIE) on Tuesday, NEA Deputy Administrator Engr. Nikki Tortola said they would be evaluating what part of the power contract could be used in case problems arise once the island is shut down.
He believed that Akelco has also been informed by the NEA regulatory affairs office “to look into the contract.”
He hoped that the contract has a provision where the power that is being supplied to the electric cooperative can be reduced, thus the unsupplied demand will not impact on the rate of the electric cooperative.
Tortola said Akelco is not at fault because it was not anticipating that the island would be closed.
He added that also, they would like to see if there are provisions that will ensure that consumers will not be affected by the shutdown.
“We are hopeful that the effect, the shutdown on Boracay and the possible reduction demand in the mainland will not significantly affect Akelco member consumers,” he said.
He added that in the next six months they “could establish significant strategy already for Boracay.”
Meantime, on its Facebook page, Akelco in its Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) said the consumption of Boracay is expected to decrease by about 84 percent once the island is closed. Also, it is expected to reduce by 38 percent the overall load profile of the electric cooperative.
Akelco has contract agreement with Green Core Geothermal Inc. (18 megawatt), Panay Energy Development Corporation (12 MW), Palm Concepcion Power Corporation (8 MW) and Panay Power Corporation (4 MW).
The cooperative added that the “power rate will be greatly affected” with an expected PHP1.58 increase in generation charge.
The statement added that Engr. Alexis M. Regalado has already “created a crisis term to work on the planned negotiation with the generating companies.”
Among the terms of the negotiation are “to reduce the Minimum Energy Off-Take (MEOT) and for the coop to just pay its actual energy, hourly reduction is proportionate to all generating companies and monthly reconciliation to adjust the bilateral contract quotient of the Akelco.
If they agree on the proposals at hand, then the impact on the generation charge will only be at PHP0.0162, the electric cooperative cited.
Tortola was in this city Tuesday for the inauguration of the state of the art GIE, a training hub for employees working for the GBP located at Barangay Ingore in La Paz district. (Perla Lena/PNA)
