Aboitiz Power Corp. starts supplying power to Albay coop

MANILA, Philippines—The Aboitiz Power Corp. has begun supplying additional electricity to Albay Electric Cooperative (Aleco), a move that will help to not only stabilize supply, but also lower power prices in the province, the APC said.

In a statement, APC said its wholly owned subsidiary AP Renewables Inc. has been required to provide Aleco with 16.56 million kilowatt-hours per month. This volume represented a 65-percent increase from the original contracted energy levels of only 10 million kWh per month.

The new agreement will expire in April 2013, APC said in a statement.

In 2010, AP Renewables was contracted to supply 40 percent of the electric cooperative’s power requirements through the geothermal plant in Tiwi, Albay.

“The increase of energy supply—which began on August 26—is now efficiently servicing more than 150,000 member-consumers of the local power cooperative,” APC said.

“We are very happy to help Aleco in providing energy to its members. This move has been beneficial to them as well as the residents of Albay,” added Roland Gaerlan, vice president for marketing at APC.

Gaerlan explained that providing Aleco with an additional supply of energy effectively reduced the monthly power bills of consumers.

“The additional energy supply would result in lower rates passed on to the end-consumers. Plus, it would make power cost on succeeding months more predictable, too,” he said.

Currently under the supervision of the state-run National Electrification Administration, Aleco has availed of the services of AP Renewables to limit the cooperative’s exposure to the volatile power rates of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, as well as to guarantee the power supply in the area.

It was only in February 2011 that NEA took over the management of Aleco, as directed by Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras, so as to allow the coop to stay connected to the grid, ensuring stable power supply within its franchise area.

Aleco was then in danger of being disconnected from the distribution and transmission system beginning Thursday (September 15) after it allegedly failed to settle close to P1 billion worth of obligations to the Philippine Electricity Market Corp., the operator of the WESM.