By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
OUTRAGE over persistently annoying and
frustrating daily brownouts has been the order of the day in Jose Panganiban,
CamNorte.
A series of power cut-offs have become a
daily staple which, according to consumers, was a sign that the power
cooperative was again preparing to collect power bills.
A day after the town fiesta last Oct
7, the power co-op launched a mobile public announcement reminding the town’s
9,000 power consumers that their power bills were about to become due again.
And Oscar Brondia, the power
cooperative’s director in Jose Panganiban, has yet to issue the right words
that would calm down the hyper-mood of irate consumers.
Brondia is Canoreco’s elected director
for the power utility in charge of Jose Panganiban accounts.
He holds office at the town hall next to
the office of the mayor.
Consumers said that Canoreco, which
means Camarines Norte Electric
Cooperative, had most of the time spoiled important occasions by cutting off
power, like for instance the celebrated homecoming of alumni of the Jose
Panganiban National High School (JPNHS) last April and the celebration of the
town fiesta on Oct 6-7.
It would be recalled that brownout
struck at the height of Mayor Ricarte Padilla’s impassioned speech before the gathered
alumni.
He was seen visibly irked.
The same annoying incident happened
while the morning religious service was taking place, keeping the alumni
wondering as to what the priest was trying to tell them in his sermon.
And at the dance party that night, most
alumni quit as power went off, leaving the whole school campus in pitch black.
In his recent posting on Facebook account
operated by a group of Mambulaoans, Brondia said that the town’s recently
installed 5MVA substation transformer at Sta Rosa has not yet been commissioned
by tapping to the 69KV transmission grid of the National Grid Corporation of
the Philippines (NGCP).
“The reason of the recurring
trips off and brownouts experienced in the town is attributed to
overloaded/imbalance load.
“Though the town has its own
substation, it is not yet tapped to the 69KV transmission line of the NGCP,
hence, the municipalities of Jose Panganiban and Paracale are still sharing the
ailing/overloaded (5MVA) substation at Paracale,” Brondia’s post said.
However, Brondia did not explain why
Jose Panganiban’s substation could not be put online.
The new substation transmitter was funded by a P150
million loan from the PCI-Equitable Bank.
Brondia told MWBuzz last April
that the power overload in the system was being caused by a number of users
such as small-scale gold mining operators who had tapped the power grid
illegally.
He also said a team from the power cooperative was
to begin dismantling said illegal power connections and appropriate legal
charges filed against the culprits.
A source from the local government unit
said the board of directors of Canoreco is in talks regarding ways to deal with
the power crisis in Mambulao.
Meanwhile, the heat on the cooperative
continues to scorch.
Irate power consumers had zeroed in on
the alleged inefficiency and corruption at the power cooperative, which
distributes electricity in the province.
One Facebook user said that the
municipal government of Padilla should tell the people if it has a real
solution to the daily brownouts being suffered by the community.
“They should tell the consumers what they
intend to do for the sake of transparency instead of keeping whatever they are
to themselves.”
The poster said the LGU “should not keep
us in the dark …”
Another Facebook poster commented that
“the endless outages are counter-productive”.
The new Canoreco director for Mambulao
will be elected by cooperative’s member-consumers for a three-year term during
the second semester of 2013.
It would be easy to guess by now that
Brondia won’t return to his job for another three-year term after next year’s
power co-op election.
It used to be held during the first
semester of the year when the director’s term of office has expired.
However, to avoid confusing the co-op
election with the local elections, the (power co-op) election has been
postponed for the next semester.
There are 120 electric cooperatives in
the country which are getting financial and technical support from the National
Electrification Administration (NEA).
For
feedback: ahernandez@thenational.com.pg and alfredophernandez@y7mail.com
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