Legazpi City -- The National Power Corporation (NPC) who tokk over the operation and management of the Albay Electric Cooperative (ALECO) on Monday vowed to initiate aggressive reforms to uplift the financially distressed electric cooperative. Engr. German Silva, NPC-ALECO operation and management manager said they would adopt reforms that would bring down the high system losses of the cooperative, upgrade antiquated distribution facilities and strengthen the reliability of electric power to consumers. These are the primary concerns that the NPC would undertake following the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the two entities last July 16, this year. Silva said "we have to address first the runaway system losses which have been placed at 23 percent, improved power capacity including the reliability of power, then we move in improving the financial capability of the cooperative." At the press conference on Tuesday, he said the NPC would see to it that the systems losses would be brought down from the high level of 23 percent to the allowable level of 14 percent. Lorna T. Dy, NPC-ALECO member in-charge of administration said the cooperative owes the NPC P1.6 billion in outstanding power bills while it has also an outstanding account of P400 million to the National Transmission corp. (TRANSCO). Dy emphasized that there will be no condonation of the outstanding account rather the government power firm would do away with the usual P11 million monthly interest service charges for delayed payments of electric bills imposed on the cooperative. She said, "the non imposition of interest and service charges would give ALECO P132 million in savings, and this may be used for other operating expenses." Under the NPC and ALECO agreement the NPC would take over for a period of one-year the operation and maintenance (O&M)of the electric cooperative as part of the rehabilitation program for ALECO. The rehab plan offers a one-year moratorium by dceferring payment of back interest and service charges. The MOA signed by NPC President Cyril Del Callar, ALECO Chairman and President Rodolfo Bonafe and ALECO Acting Manager Samson Madrideo states that the NPC would extend technical and financial expertise to the electric cooperative to enable it to recover from its huge indebtedness. But under the MOA the electric cooperative would pay a 2 percent service fee for every power procured from NPC, equivalent to P1.8 million in monthly fee to be used by the team for their incidental expenses. Meanwhile Albay Gov. Hoey Sarte Salceda said lauded the partnership saying that electric consumers in the province would no longer fear the threat of the apparent notice of disconnection due for the failure of Aleco to settle their outstanding power bills with the NPC.
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