P28 million pooled to energize Benguet sitios

LA TRINIDAD – Several government agencies and private companies have pooled a total of P28 million to bring electricity to unenergized areas in the province to help the Benguet Electric Coop. in the endeavor.

Out of the amount, P14 million will be coming from the SN Aboitiz Power Benguet for Bokod and Itogon towns that play host to the Ambuclao and Binga dams; P9 million from the Department of Energy while Rep. Ronald M. Cosalan will be sharing P5 million from his Priority Development Assistance Fund.

Engineer Melchor Licoben, manager of Beneco’s engineering department, said the rural electric cooperative is coordinating with concerned government agencies, officials and private companies for the venture.

According to him, rural electrification is one of the mandates of electric cooperatives, thus, it is should bring power even to remote parts of the country.

Licoben explained the situation in Benguet, where sitios are located distant from each other with only few households to connect.

He cited a recently surveyed sitio in the province where it will take at least P3 million to bring power to such place but there are only ten households who are not even sure if they will apply for electrical connections.

However, Licoben said once power will be available in the rural areas in the province, those who went to the urban centers to look for sources of livelihood will be enticed to go back to their places of origin in order to put up businesses and generate employment for their town mates as well as come out with lucrative sources of livelihood which would spur economic growth in far flung areas.

While part of the power bill of the over 130,000 consumers is earmarked for rural electrification, Licoben said until 2012, the rural electric cooperative has embarked on a massive rehabilitation of its distribution system in Baguio and nearby La Trinidad in order to significantly improve the quality and reliability of power that will translate to much lower systems loss that is tantamount to cheaper power rates.

At present, the current systems loss of Beneco which is being passed on to its consumers is now 9.46 percent which helped the cooperative earned the award for single digit systems loss among the 119 electric cooperatives nationwide that means its distribution systems has greatly improved over the past three decades.