Negros Power ahead of 5-year development plan

By Dolly Yasa

Negros Power President and Chief Executive Officer Roel Castro described the first year of operations of the power utility firm in Central Negros as very challenging.

Castro said this during the “Negros Power Shares Milestones to the Press” forum Wednesday at Citadines in Bacolod City, dubbed as “12 Months Journey of Driving Change and Progress.”

“It’s very challenging, we have gone through all the baptism of fires,” he said.

Castro noted that despite the challenges, the company is already ahead of its targets under its five-year development plan.

Negros Power took over the operations of the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO) in its franchise area in Central Negros through a joint venture agreement.

He said the system loss of 12 percent when they took over has been reduced to 7 percent.

One of the biggest challenges the firm faced early on was when the Alijis Substation, a 37.5 MegaVolt Ampere (MVA) facility with seven feeders in Barangay Alijis, Bacolod City, experienced an internal explosion, cutting power to about 47,000 consumers.

Castro said that with the five-year development plan already in place, the firm has so far utilized about PHP 1.2 billion of the PHP 2.5 billion earmarked for the program.

He added that if the PHP 2.5 billion is not enough for the needed improvements, they will allocate additional resources.

He also committed to complete the energization of about 232 sitios in the franchise area with a budget of PHP 250 million.

Castro said that before Negros Power took over CENECO, one of the criticisms was that there would be no more sitio energization, but contrary to that, they have already started reaching out to unenergized areas.

Out of this, about 30 sitios have been “lighted up,” benefiting more than 1,000 families.

Castro said the rest will be energized within three years.

As far as “going green” or utilizing renewable energy is concerned, Castro said Negros Power sources approximately 33 percent, or about 40 megawatts, of its power supply requirement from renewable energy generated by geothermal power plants operated by Green Core Geothermal Inc. and Energy Development Corp.

He emphasized that this commitment to geothermal energy is a significant part of Negros Power’s strategy to incorporate sustainable and clean energy into its power mix, supporting the region’s goal of a more reliable and environmentally responsible electricity supply.

For the projected underground cabling initially targeted along Lacson Street, Castro said that for now they can only remove Negros Power lines, excluding those of telecommunication companies.

The initial length of the underground cabling along Lacson Street is 300 meters.

“If there’s one thing that Negros Power can assure the consumers in its franchise area,” Castro said, “it’s that things will just get better.”