Veco to launch power saving campaign in 80 barangays

CEBU, Philippines- The Visayan Electric Company (VECO) and the Cebu City government will roll out the "Cebu Unplugged" campaign to 80 barangays in the city.

Afterwhich, the Aboitiz-led electric distribution company will award its "Cebu Unplugged" campaign to selected 10 schools within the city before the end of September.

VECO reputation enhancement department head Jill Verallo said that the company is working closely with Cebu City councilor Nida Cabrera, who is the environment committee head in the Cebu City council.

The barangay version of "Cebu Unplugged" will select two representatives per barangay to be the ambassadors of the unplugged program.

Verallo said after the  200 ambassadors will be deployed to educate the people on electricity consumption, VECO will choose five households, five commercial establishments, as well as five industrial establishments.

The "Cebu Unplugged" campaign was launched in the middle of last year to encourage Cebuanos to reduce their energy consumption specifically during peak hours from 10am to 6pm.

Consumers are urged to unplug high energy consuming appliances at home particularly the ones that have heating and cooling functions, like refrigerator, aircon, flat iron, among others.

VECO, through this campaign, called the attention of electric consumers to be more aware of the "ghost" consumption such as unused appliances that stay plugged to the sockets like television and computers on standby mode.

Electric consumption within the VECO franchise area from Lilo-an to San Fernando increased by five percent at the at the peak of summer starting May 1, from a demand of only 433 megawatts in the same period of last year, to 457 megawatt this month.

The severe tightness of power supply in the Visayas has led VECO to pioneer an aggressive electricity demand reduction campaign to arrest possible rotational brownouts or worse greater power outages in its franchise area. (FREEMAN)