Napocor arrears might cause brownouts, says Catanduanes utility

Sunwest Water and Electric Co., Inc. (Suweco) is scaling down its operations due to an issue involving alleged “overdue” payment of the National Power Corp. (Napocor), a development that could trigger rotational brownouts in Catanduanes.

Scaled-back operations would begin on Saturday, Oct. 5, Suweco said in a statement on Friday.

“We are hoping for the understanding of the thousands of member-consumers of Ficelco (First Catanduanes Electric Cooperative) who will be directly affected by the brownouts,” said Floro Barrameda, business unit head of Suweco.

“We have done everything in our control to prevent this, but unfortunately, Napocor has taken a position adverse to the member-consumers of Ficelco by its refusal to honor its obligations,” Barrameda said.

He added that while Suweco remains committed and steadfast in providing reliable power to the residents of Catanduanes at a reasonable cost, the utility chooses to absorb the impact of the unsettled subsidy from Napocor instead of passing the higher cost to its member-customers.

“[W]e are not comfortable in collecting the full rate of electricity [without any subsidy] or the ‘true cost generation rate’ to the member-consumers for Ficelco since the rate will be higher and burdensome on them,” Barrameda added.

Unprocessed, unpaid

Suweco said that since May, it has repeatedly sent subsidy billings to Napocor, which the state firm “duly received,” but that such bills remain “partially unprocessed and unpaid.”

Napocor is a state-run firm that operates small power utilities groups, which are usually powered by diesel-fired generators. They are intended to power areas not connected to the grid.

According to Suweco, Napocor’s “refusal” to settle the bills was the result of the Energy Regulatory Commission’s (ERC) decision earlier this year, dismissing the application of Ficelco and Suweco for the approval of an amendment to their electricity supply agreement.

But Suweco said its motion for reconsideration—filed last March—remains pending before the ERC, making the latter’s ruling “not yet deemed final and executory.” INQ