By Dolly Yasa
BACOLOD CITY — A top official from the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) has hailed the Negros Electric and Power Corporation (NEPC) Distribution Rehabilitation and Development Plan as a significant step toward ensuring power security for Negros.
Frank Carbon, PCCI vice president for the Visayas and chief executive officer of the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI), said on Wednesday that the plan provides a tool to evaluate the performance of the local distribution utility.
“We now have a tool to evaluate the performance of our Distribution Utility,” Carbon told the Daily Guardian.
Carbon, along with other stakeholders, attended the presentation of NEPC’s five-year Distribution Rehabilitation and Development Plan by NEPC President and CEO Roel Castro.
The event was attended by Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo “Albee” Benitez, Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, Negros Occidental Vice Governor Jeffrey Ferrer, former governor Lito Coscolluela, local government officials, consumer groups, and other stakeholders.
Carbon said that other distribution utilities in the province, such as NOCECO and NONECO, could learn from NEPC’s presentation and develop their own plans, which should be presented to their consumers for transparency and readiness assessment.
He added that Negros’ Power Security Plan should focus on three major components: Generation, Transmission, and Distribution.
Carbon also said the NEPC plan will help alleviate public concerns and give hope for improvements.
“For business owners and potential investors, it will encourage expansion knowing that we have a responsible utility company with the know-how and financial backing to deliver on their promises,” he added.
Mayor Benitez expressed satisfaction with the presentation, saying, “Ever since the joint venture, this has been their plan—to modernize the system, our grid. Now we’ve seen what these plans are, and it’s better they presented them to stakeholders.”
Benitez emphasized that while the plans look good on paper, the focus will be on execution.
He also confirmed he had asked Castro for an assurance that there will be no power outages during the upcoming MassKara Festival next month, to which Castro agreed.
“We will have 100 percent power supply during the MassKara festivities,” Benitez said.
Benitez also shared that when NEPC first entered Bacolod, he set three conditions: no or reduced brownouts, lower power rates, and tapping renewable energy.
“All of these are in the plan, we just need to ensure it is implemented and executed,” he added.
Meanwhile, Castro stressed that rehabilitation is the most important aspect of the five-year development plan.
“We cannot move toward a modernized system if we don’t rehabilitate,” Castro said, pointing out that the feeders are full and substations are in poor condition.
The rehabilitation process will be followed by modernization, funded by an estimated ₱2.5 billion to be infused into NEPC.
“If it takes more, we are ready,” Castro added.
