By Victor V. Saulon, Sub-Editor
ELECTRIC cooperatives have criticized a plan by distribution utility Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) to expand beyond its franchise area and build microgrids in communities that remain without access to electricity.
Sergio C. Dagooc, president of National Association of General Managers of Electric Cooperatives, or Nagmec, said on Friday that Meralco’s move is “an open admission” that the company along with other “private sector profiteers” intend to “breach boundaries.”
He said Meralco’s plan is “not for public gain but to further enlarge their take at the expense of electric cooperatives (ECs) and the impoverished.”
“In the guise of total electrification and bringing electricity service to unserved communities, these private interests only want to expand their areas of operation and fill their coffers to the limits,” Mr. Dagooc said.
He said Meralco must first admit that it had been remiss in its own coverage areas as it had not fully energized communities as prescribed by its franchise grants, “which were given decades before the advent of rural electrification in 1969.”
He said this was despite the fact that the company’s areas are small and its consumers are more densely packed than those of electric cooperatives.
“Energize your backyards first. We can take care of ours, given sufficient government electrification funds and so long as we are able to get private sector partners, to electrify the unserved rural communities under our coverage,” he said.
His reaction comes after Meralco on Wednesday said it had identified new energy businesses, including microgrids or a small-scale electricity grid that can be operated independently from the country’s interconnected network of power transmission facilities.
Oscar S. Reyes, Meralco president and chief executive officer, said the company was planning to build a microgrid outside its franchise area possibly next year. He said the company has started preparations for the project.
Meralco serves the cities and municipalities of Bulacan, Cavite, Metro Manila and Rizal, and certain cities, municipalities and barangays in the provinces of Batangas, Laguna, Pampanga and Quezon.
Mr. Dagooc said: “The only ones they are helping are themselves; if they were truly altruistic, then why demand special tariff rates to enable them to operate in these areas.”
“Stop the encroachment, stop fooling the public, and stop misleading our policymakers,” he added.
Meralco’s controlling stakeholder, Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc., is partly owned by PLDT Inc.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls.
