Meralco urges action on Batangas, GenSan power plans

MANILA ELECTRIC CO. (Meralco) is urging electric cooperatives in Batangas and General Santos (GenSan) City to conduct public bidding to determine their power distribution partners, as it seeks to advance proposals to upgrade facilities and address persistent electricity issues in these areas.

“Our request is really to hasten it because it has been there for a long time; we have been pending,” Arnel P. Casanova, senior vice-president and head of strategic distribution utility partnerships of Meralco, told reporters on Tuesday.

Meralco, the country’s largest private electric distribution utility, serves more than 8.2 million customers in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

The company already supplies electricity to large economic and industrial parks in Batangas but is seeking to expand its service to cover the entire province.

Several years ago, Meralco submitted proposals to Batangas I Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Batelec I), Batangas II Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Batelec II), and South Cotabato II Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Socoteco II) to help upgrade facilities and improve electricity services. These proposals remain pending.

Power consumers in Batangas have reported frequent and prolonged outages that disrupt livelihoods, particularly in a town heavily dependent on tourism, according to a recent survey by Capstone Intel, a research firm.

“I think, for the best interest of the member-consumers, that bidding be conducted immediately so that we will know who can best serve the consumers either in Batelec I or GenSan,” Mr. Casanova said.

He added that a public bidding process would allow consumers and the public to evaluate proposals “that would serve the best interest of the member consumers.”

Mr. Casanova said Meralco does not intend to take over any electric cooperative but aims to provide capital for facility upgrades and development.

“All other proposals that we see out there require the takeover of franchise by a new corporation. So basically, the electric cooperative loses the business itself because it’s transferred to a new corporation, and the asset will be transferred to a new corporation,” he said.

“So what happens in the other proposals is that they lose the franchise, they lose the assets, and they lose the business. So for Meralco, we retain all of them,” he added.

Electric cooperatives are owned and managed by member-consumers, unlike distribution utilities such as Meralco, which are owned by shareholders.

Under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), electric cooperatives may convert into either stock cooperatives or stock corporations.

“Our approach and our model is to convince the electric cooperatives to convert into stock corporations, which would lead to the members being real stockholders,” Mr. Casanova said, adding that electric cooperatives may receive dividends.

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 an interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera