Razon’s Primelectric aims to turn around Negros power service

MANILA, Philippines — Primelectric Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of Enrique Razon-led MORE Power, is looking to bring reliable and uninterrupted electric service to Negros through its joint venture with Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO) once its franchise is granted.

With the House Committee on Legislative Franchises giving its preliminary approval to House Bill 9310, which aims to grant the Negros Electric and Power Corp. (NEPC) a franchise, Primelectric said Negros residents “may soon experience a transformative change in their electric service.”

The franchise will enable NEPC, the joint venture between Primelectric and CENECO, to establish and maintain an electric power distribution system in key cities and municipalities in the province of Negros Occidental.

This will likewise ensure a continuous and uninterrupted supply of electricity in the franchise area.

Primelectric president Roel Castro said  the company would submit and comply with what is being required by Congress to approve the NEPC franchise within the week.

CENECO still has seven years under its current franchise, which is up to 2030.

To improve its service, however, CENECO has entered into a joint venture agreement with Primelectric, a subsidiary of MORE Electric and Power Corp., a distribution utility that operates in Iloilo City.

Under the new company, 30 percent ownership will be retained by CENECO, while Primelectric will purchase 70 percent of its assets.

Given the issues currently faced by CENECO consumers, Castro said there is an urgent need for a better electric service in the region.

“The electric service is not really that good. They have frequent brownouts, and when I say frequent, it’s normal to say that it’s daily. It takes them months to comply when you apply for a new connection. There’s a lot of complaints, and over and above that, their system loss is already beyond the cap,” Castro said.

“And when the systems loss is above the cap, it means that it is being passed on to the bottomline consumers, and CENECO is already losing P20 million to P30 million a month,” he said.

Castro is bullish in NEPC’s ability to bring significant enhancements to Bacolod and Central Negros, drawing from the company’s successful experience in Iloilo.

“With all confidence, I am saying that because we were able to do that in Iloilo. In the last three years, we were able to bring down systems loss to only five percent. We also curtailed the duration of interruptions by over 90 percent. In terms of rates, our rate is the lowest within the region,” he said.

Primelectric, through NEPC, is also committed to significantly improve the response time for emergencies in the franchise area.

It said CENECO currently takes 90 minutes to two hours to respond, while MORE Power in Iloilo achieves a response time of 15 minutes.

“I would say that the approach to rehabilitate and make a turnaround is something we have done in Iloilo, and now we aim to do the same in Negros,” Castro said.

“The investment, combined with the approach, is something that we are confident we can replicate in Central Negros if given a chance by Congress to have a franchise,” he said.