Antique slates March 13 public hearing on add'l energy charges
San Jose, Antique -- The Antique Electric Cooperative (Anteco) has announced that on March 13, 2007, a Transmission Corporation team from Manila will come to Antique to help the office explain comprehensively the proposed increase in energy charges to its member-consumers.
This public hearing is an off-shoot of an earlier reported implementation of connection and residual sub-transmission charges pursuant to Open Access Transmission Scheme (OATS) of 2006, disclosed Eng'r Ludovico Lim, Anteco General Manager.
The proposed increase of about P1.12 per kwh by Transco could have been effected this March if not for the non-granting of provisional authority to implement the new transmission rate by Energy Regulatory Commission, said Lim.
Eng'r Lim clarified that the proposed transmission rate adjustment is solely for the Transco, which taps Anteco as collector to reflect the true cost of delivering power to different areas in the country as provided in OATS and as a consequence, the farther the distance from the power plants, the higher the charges.
With these development, Anteco has intensified its information dissemination to the 16 coverage municipalities with a combined total member-consumers of 48,982 as of January 2007.
Sectoral representatives, such as the media, church/religious, non-government organizations (NGOs) Antique Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and other representatives from the cross-section of society are enjoined to attend the scheduled dialogue/consultation with the officials of the Transmission Corporation, Lim added.
Stable power supply is the permanent agenda of the government, as President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo vowed to remain focused on her governance and in her crusade of bringing the effects of the positive grant of the economy to the Filipino people, as embodied in her new economic policy direction of "8 by '08" of achieving the eight blessings of a strong economy by 2008. The eight blessings involved job creation, better cost of living, strong peso, more investment, pro-poor education, pro-poor health care, housing, food green Philippines and anti-terrorism.
(PIA)