Electric coops play role in low cost, stable power supply, expert says

QUEZON CITY - Electric cooperatives can play an important role in helping address energy crisis and in ensuring less cost and stable supply of electricity to consumers.

University of the Philippines Associate Professor Rowaldo del Mundo told this to electric cooperative stakeholders nationwide attending the EPIRA 101 seminar at the UP National Engineering Center here.

Del Mundo said electric coops  are the link that can help solve problems in power industry. “What they need to do is to empower themselves as mandated by EPIRA or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act and work together as an aggregation.”

“First they have to educate themselves on framework of the EPIRA law, which will empower them in crafting specific actions. As an aggregate, they can do joint actions on specific concerns on power generation, sub-transmission and distribution”, delMundo said.

 Even if they are separate and independent entities, if they decide as one through aggregation, they can act as if they are a big company, he  added.   

 Citing an example, del Mundo  said Central Luzon electric cooperatives, as an aggregate, recently agreed to set their electricity cost to P3.70 per kilowatthour, which is much less compared to the around P5/KWH cost of electricity in Metro Manila.

 To ensure additional power source, the Central Luzon Electric Cooperative aggregate is also set to undertake development of its P300 mega watts power generation project.

The three day seminar, which focused on electric power industry, market and regulation, was attended by around 60 officials from electric cooperatives nationwide. --Carlito C. Dar