Primelectric Holdings Inc., an affiliate company of MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power), will invest as much as P4 billion in Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco).
According to Primelectric President Roel Castro, a joint venture agreement (JVA) was recently signed between the two firms.
“We signed the JVA with CENECO last Saturday although that will still undergo a referendum on June 24 and 25 and on July 1 and 2,” Castro said Wednesday.
He said that under the guidelines of the National Electrification Administration (NEA) there should be a majority vote of 50 percent plus one from members in good standing.
“Hopefully, we will get the majority out of the 207,000 members of good standing in Ceneco,” Castro said.
The JV entity—Negros Electric and Power Corp. (NEPC)—will then have to apply for a new franchise.
“NEA will certify it but since we want the JVA to have a new franchise, we will have to go to Congress and apply for new franchise. If the referendum will be a yes and Congress gives the franchise, then that gives them another 25 years of continued business,” added Castro.
He said the company is committed to making “substantial investments” in the area, with the goal of improving power supply and distribution services for consumers. Ceneco currently serves over 200,000 consumers.
“For the asset purchase, it’s about P1.8 billion to P1.9 billion. Over and above that, we are ready with another P2 billion to start the capex [capital expenditure] program.”
Meanwhile, Iloilo Representative Julliene Baronda is urging more distribution utilities (DUs) to refund their consumers of bill deposits, as she lauded the initiatives of MORE Power to refund its consumers in Iloilo of more than P5 billion worth of bill deposits.
The bill deposit is a payment by the consumer by the time they apply for their own electric service. The refund of the bill deposit is mandated by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to all DUs.
Under Article 7 of the Magna Carta for residential electric consumers, DUs should refund the bill deposit after three years or 36 months for customers who are paying on time and with no record of disconnection.
“We commend MORE Power for taking this lead of giving back bill deposits for its consumers who complied with the prerequisites of refund,” said Baronda, adding that ERC has repeatedly called on DUs to initiate the refund of bill deposits for consumers who qualify for the criteria.
The lawmaker said she will also explore the mandate of the Congressional Oversight Committee to look into the records of DUs who have not complied with the bill deposit refund.
While the law does not compel DUs to voluntarily refund consumers of their bill deposits, Baronda said the initiatives of MORE Power to refund its consumers in Iloilo City is “commendable” and proves that DUs have the means to review its records and execute refund of bill deposits.