‘No manipulation of power crisis’
The Panay Power Corp. has denied the claim of the Freedom from Debt Coalition-Iloilo that the daily power outages in Iloilo City is a result of a “manipulated power crisis.”
It is caused by insufficient power of Panay Electric Company, the sole power distributor in Iloilo City, said Engr. Adrian Moncada, vice president of Global Business Power Corp. (GBPC), parent company of PPC.
He said the PPC supplies only 69 megawatts to PECO, based on their contract, but Iloilo City needs 79 MW during peak hours.
“Basically, it’s really undersupplied, especially since the National Power Corp. stopped providing 15 MW since June 2010,” Moncada added.
FDC-Iloilo Secretary General Ted Aldwin Ong had earlier said that aside from the 69 MW contract of PPC to PECO, it also gets 20 MW from Avon River Corp.
However, Moncada said the PECO contract with Avon River Corp. is a non-firm contract.
By non-firm, it means the power supply will only be delivered if it’s available.
“It is not committed to give (power) to PECO,” he said, adding that Avon River Corp. only supplies 10 MW to PECO.
Engr. Randy Pastolero of PECO said the power interruptions are not something they do intentionally.
The power outages undertaken by PECO is due to supply deficiency and no malice is intended when it happens, he said.
“That’s why we are sparingly rotating the brownouts to all our feeders under our franchise,” Pastolero said.
The PECO rotating brownouts run from two to three hours daily. In some cases, it could stretch to as long as four to five hours.
Pastolero said PECO is finding a solution to the problem by signing a contract with the Panay Energy Development Company, operator of the GBPC coal-fired power plant in La Paz district.
“We believe this would be a big help in solving the brownouts,” he said, adding that PEDC might start distributing electricity to PECO next month.*
