Negros Power has gone a long way

By Herbert Vego

ANY other ordinary mortal would have refused to “inherit” the burdens of a losing electric cooperative, hitherto known as the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO) in Bacolod City.

But not Roel Z. Castro, better known in Iloilo City as president/CEO of MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power), who accepted the challenge of reviving the dying CENECO through a joint venture agreement with Primelectric Holdings Inc. (a subsidiary of MORE Power), signed on June 3, 2023. The new company is now known as Negros Power Corporation (Negros Power).

On July 26, 2023, President Ferdinand Marcos jr. signed Republic Act No. 12011, granting Negros Power a franchise to establish, operate and maintain an electric distribution system to the end users in central Negros, and ensure continuous and uninterrupted electricity supply.

In that year, CENECO was drowning in debts amounting to more than ₱800 million and was no longer capable of upgrading its obsolete facilities.

Primelectric, on the other hand, was ready with its ₱2.1 billion investment to stabilize its operation.

As a power distribution utility, CENECO, which is now Negros Power, energizes Bacolod City, the neighboring cities of Bago, Talisay, Silay and the municipalities of Murcia and Salvador Benedicto.

Under the agreement Primelectric holds a 70% controlling stake in Negros Power; Ceneco, 30%.

In its first-anniversary press conference which I attended at Citadines Hotel in Bacolod last Wednesday, Castro announced that Negros Power had grown by leaps and bound, starting from 177,737 customers in August 2024 to 242,000-plus today on a land area of 1,455 square kilometers.

Compare that to MORE Power’s 105,000 customers congested on a land area of only 77 kilometers.

Such customer expansion was no joke, though, since it means installing new lines on hitherto uncharted and sparsely populated locations.

To connect the roadless sitios from Bacolod to Silay cities, Castro cited, they had to clear a path for the power lines passing through a 30-kilometer stretch of sugarcane fields.

“We are on track with our five-year development plan,” Castro said, adding that the company is still in the process of overhauling its substations and feeders. “By May 2026, we will have completed the overhaul.”

Within one year, the company has upgraded all its transformers, power lines and insulators to improve reliability and reduce brownouts.

Right now, Negros Power is at work on undergrounding an 800-meter cable distribution along a main thoroughfare in line with the celebration of the MassKara Festival in October.

Negros Power has now a workforce of more than 400 employees, half of whom used to be regular employees of CENECO.

Thanks also to Engr. Bernard Bailey R. del Castillo (Vice President and COO) and Ma. Cecilia Pe (Assistant Vice President, Customer Care Marketing) for some facts and statistics cited here.

-oOo-

NO BUCK-PASSING PLEASE

THERE ought to be a stop to the “word war” going on between Iloilo City Mayor Raisa Treñas-Chu and Rep. Julienne “JamJam” Baronda. There is no sense in blaming each other for the failure of the government’s flood-control programs.

The congresswoman should have supported the present mayor’s move suspending eight ongoing flood-mitigation projects worth PHP 821 million being done by construction firms owned by the Discaya family following the revocation of their licenses.

After all, the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB) has revoked the licenses of nine companies owned or controlled by Sarah Discaya.  She had admitted her firms had “competed” in “kalop-kalo” biddings to ensure a “win-win” outcome.

St. Gerrard is one of her construction firms with unfinished projects here in Iloilo City.

One of St. Gerrard’s unfinished projects — a P39 million roadway lighting initiative along the Iloilo-Antique and Mandurriao-San Miguel roads – is so far only 51% complete.  As stipulated in the contract, it was due for completion last August 22 yet.

The projects are being implemented not by the local government but by the national government through the Iloilo City District Engineering Office (ICDEO) headed by Engr. Roy Pacanan.

Cong Jam, please advise Pacanan to turn right.