INCREASING demand for power led to a 7-percent jump in electricity sales of electric cooperatives (ECs) in 2018.
The National Electrification Administration (NEA) reported that electricity sales of the ECs reached 21,421,471 megawatt hours last year, compared with 19,950,097 MWh in 2017.
According to the NEA Information Technology and Communication Services Department (ITCSD), this was due to an 8-percent increase in consumption in Luzon and the Visayas, and 6 percent in Mindanao.
ITCSD manager Roderick Padua said the Visayas registered an average increase of 22 percent in revenues, followed by Luzon and Mindanao at 17 percent.
Consequently, the EC’s operating revenues increased by P32.518 billion, or 18 percent to P211.404 billion from the previous year’s P178.886 billion.
The top 5 ECs with the highest operating revenues were the Central Negros Electric Cooperative Inc. (Ceneco), South Cotabato II Electric Cooperative Inc. (Socoteco II), Batangas II Electric Cooperative Inc. (Batelec II), Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative Inc. (Zamcelco) and Peninsula Electric Cooperative Inc. (Penelco).
On the other hand, the ECs’ overall system loss declined by 0.27 percent from 11.11 percent in 2017 to 10.84 percent in 2018. This translated to savings of 2,611 GWh or P25.8 billion.
“While reductions were registered for Luzon at 0.50 percent and the Visayas at 0.22 percent, Mindanao registered an increase of 0.14 percent,” Padua said.
Single-digit system loss was registered in Cordillera Administrative Region, Regions 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12 and CARAGA.