More electricity at lower cost

By Herbert Vego

 

THE lesser the power pilferers, the more money the power consumers of Iloilo City save.

This was the impression I gathered over coffee with Ariel “Ayê” Castañeda, now the head of the apprehension team of MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power), which is tasked to catch electricity thieves and turn them into happy, paying customers.

Although only five months on the job, Castañeda had cast an impressive stature in his previous job as market administrator of the Iloilo City government.

No less than MORE President Roel Z. Castro had asked him to join the new distribution utility, which had taken over Panay Electric Co. (PECO) as the new power franchisee in the next 25 years.

“It was an honor accepting his offer,” Castañeda said of Castro. “I see him as a no-nonsense visionary.”

I agreed. It was Castro who had served as the first president of the Palm Concepcion Power Corp. (PCPC) in Barangay Nipa, Concepcion, Iloilo in 2014. The company has since then prospered as a coal-fired power plant.

Castro was recently honored by his alma mater, the University of the Philippines in Los Baños (UPLB) as this year’s “Outstanding Alumnus for Corporate Governance” along with seven other awardees from different categories.

Castro, a Metro Manilan, had actually finished BS Agricultural Business at UP in Los Baños, Laguna, but fate intervened to catapult him to management level of the power sector in Iloilo.

I could only guess he is as honored to have Ayê – who is also a holder of an Agri-Business degree — in his circle of performers.

Castañeda smiled but stressed that he could not have made it without the efficiency of the rest of the team, including Pearl Domingo, Engr. Eric Patnubay and six linemen. Patnubay, like most of MORE’s technical men, had honed his electrical expertise through more or less two decades of experience with PECO. Incidentally, since more than 50 of MORE’s employees are transferees from PECO, there is no truth to the accusation that the new company is “inexperienced”.

“We found out when we came in,” Castañeda revealed, “that, in addition to 65,000 legitimate consumers, there were also 30,000 households subsisting on pilfered power.”

The apprehension team has so far disconnected more than 10,300 illegal connections using various devices known as “jumpers”. However, it does not mean they would henceforth be deprived of the privilege to enjoy electrical appliances. In fact, around 5,000 of them have availed themselves of legitimate connections already after approval of their applications. The rest would be afforded the same opportunity.

In fact, they would probably be paying lesser than what they used to pay syndicated “fixers” who used to collect a fixed monthly fee from them for pilfered electricity.

To have a legitimate connection installed, the applicant would only need to pay P2,500 for bill deposit. The amount could even be paid on installment.

There are areas where illegal connections are clustered. There was a single day, for instance, when Castañeda’s team discovered 27 illegal connections fastened to street lines with alligator clips. The perpetrators have been identified for the proper filing of criminal charges.

Pilfered electricity bypasses the electric meter, ending up as “system’s loss” which is charged proportionately to the paying consumers, provided it does not exceed 6.5 percent of power consumed. The distribution utility absorbs whatever loss exceeds that cap.

MORE Power distributes residential electricity at P9.61 per kilowatt-hour or even discounted at “lifeline rates” for consumptions not exceeding 100 kilowatt-hours.

To have a legitimate connection installed, the applicant would only need to pay P2,500 for bill deposit. The indigents may even pay the amount on installment.

Naturally, it would take months to process the latter’s applications and install their metered lines.

All analog meters from PECO would be replaced with digital ones which could not be tampered with.

Why had the previous franchise grantee not lifted a finger against the pilferers for violation of the anti-power pilferage law (Republic Act No. 7832)?

Castañeda was in no position to answer that. But he volunteered the information that the “fixers” were runners of well-connected syndicates who were also into illegal drugs and gambling, in cahoots with City Hall employees, barangay captains and councilmen.

The waterfront – or the Muelle Loney and its side streets – used to be where a pilferage syndicate profitably operated.

“That is no longer a problem,” Castañeda enthused. “They have converted themselves into paying customers.”

They now see that with less pilferage comes lesser power bill.