‘NO DARK CHRISTMAS’: Iloilo power co-ops vow minimal power interruptions in December

By Joseph Bernard A. Marzan

The three Iloilo Electric Cooperative (ILECO) I, II, and III on Friday, December 15, promised its member-consumer-owners (MCOs) that there would be no scheduled power interruptions for this month and that they would continue to seek to minimize sudden outages.

The three distribution utilities (DU) serving Iloilo province held a joint media conference to tout their achievements this 2023 in power provisions and their related public service actions.

ILECO III General Manager James Balsomo said that they have not scheduled any power interruptions this month to give way for the MCOs’ enjoyment of the holidays and ensured that they would be ready to respond to any unscheduled interruptions.

He added that they had always been prepared during the end months of the year since these were the months when super typhoons would hit northern parts of the province which is being served by ILECO III.

“We are closely ensuring that there will be extra efforts to prevent, as much as possible, power interruptions for the critical moments during Christmas and New Year. We were able to do this for Christmas and New Year last year, and hopefully we would be able to do this [this year],” Balsomo said.

The three general managers also noted the recent improvements concerning their systems losses, citing response times and a decrease in charges passed on to the MCOs.

ILECO I’s systems loss charges, according to their general manager Miguel Paguntalan Jr., had decreased from an average of 7 percent last year to 1 percent this year.

Paguntalan cited support from local government and barangay officials in allowing them to clear plants and animals that had been perched on their power lines.

Meanwhile, ILECO II’s power load was “99 percent available” per month according to general manager Jose Redmond Eric Roquios, based on the increased consumption by the MCOs.

He said that this was due to the decentralization of power maintenance operations based in strategic areas such as Calinog, Dumangas, and Janiuay towns and Passi City, with new maintenance equipment and vehicles as well as upcoming plans to build new substations along their franchise area.

Their maintenance times, according to him, have significantly decreased from 5 hours to 30 minutes due to these improvements.

For ILECO III, their average resolution time in 2023 over their coverage area is 3 minutes, less than the 10-minute standard set by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), while their systems loss only amounted to 3 percent since the beginning of the year, and their unscheduled power interruptions decreased from 102 in October to 62 in November.

“There is no perfect [power] distribution system all over the world. Even in the most advanced countries, in urban areas, there are brownouts, because that is the natural environment of our distribution system. But as much as possible, with power interruptions, we must be able to measure and arrest [them] with the [metrics] given by the Energy Regulatory Commission,” said Balsomo.