BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
“Short term extension only” was the reaction of newly-elected president Jojit Yap of the Central Negros Electric Cooperative Board, in reply to the appeal of Kepco-Salcon Power Corporation to extend its present agreement with Ceneco for another year.
Kepco’s agreement with Ceneco for the delivery of the 40-megawatt base load supply will end on May 31.
Kepco also won the bidding on April 12 as Ceneco’s supplier for its 20MW base load requirement for the next 10 years, with the power delivery supposed to start on May 26.
This despite the opposition raised by the Board, considering that a complaint was filed by Konsyumer, an electricity consumers’ group, before the Department of Energy against the deal, Yap said.
She said that, probably, this is the reason why Kepco instead opted to seek for an extension of its current agreement with Ceneco.
President and chief executive officer Jong Ryon Yoon of Kepco-SPC, in a letter to Ceneco acting manager Danny Pondevilla, said the firm gave a significant performance in delivering secure, reliable, and affordable supply, for the last 10 years.
Yoon also assured that the extension of the contract shall be under similar terms and conditions as their current one, and will be beneficial to Ceneco and its member-consumers.
But Yap stressed that Ceneco can only grant a short term extension of its agreement with Kepco until the issues raised by Konsyumer have been resolved by the DOE. She also said that if ever the extension is approved, they will ask Kepco to lower the contract price.*
