CEBECO III to receive top award from NEA

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu III Electric Cooperative (CEBECO III) will be recognized by the National Electrification Administration (NEA) as the most outstanding electric cooperative for 2010 nationwide.

CEBECO III serves the municipalities of Asturias, Aloguinsan, Balamban, and Pinamungahan as well as Toledo City.

The cooperative will receive the Mega Diamond Electric Cooperative for Emmanuel N. Pelaez Award for unparalleled track record and exemplary performance. This will be handed tonight during the awards ceremony.

Among the reasons why CEBECO III will be accorded the award was its excellent customer service and solid corporate social responsibility, which serve as pillars of strong institutions, thus inspiring the electric cooperatives (ECs) to achieve the highest level of performance.

According to Judith Alferez, NEA Director of Public Affairs Office said that the system loss of CEBECO III was 5.51 percent, which is second to the DIELCO, the electric cooperative in the Dinagat Island in Surigao del Norte with a system loss of 5.25 percent, the lowest among those under NEA.

System loss is the total of all energy lost or wasted on a system due to line loss and other forms of energy loss, unaccounted energy use and theft among other factors.

Alferez added that the criteria used by NEA in choosing the most outstanding electric cooperative are financial liability, collection efficiency and systems loss of the electric cooperative.

CEBECO I and II, sister companies of CEBECO III, will also be given the Grand Diamond EC for Emmanuel N. Pelaez Award.

NEA and the 109 electric cooperatives nationwide are in Cebu for the annual conference and recognition at the Radisson Blu Hotel.

NEA is a government owned and controlled corporation mandated to assist in the operations of the electric cooperatives nationwide.

The three-day conference with the theme “Power Lives On….Through Competition” aims to affirm the Rural Electrification Program achievements, highlighting the competitive advantage and value the NEA- EC partnership.

It also aims to reinforce the importance of generation, transmission and distribution aspects of the energy sector to support the ECs operational performance and viability, to strengthen ECs’ business institutions through good governance and to recognize excellence and outstanding practices of best performing ECs.

Senator Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero, who was guest speaker during the first night, encouraged the electric cooperatives to also invest in power generation.

"Electric cooperatives as a group can engage in power generation or you can build power plants," said Escudero.

Edilberto Bassig, deputy administrator for Field Operations Group of NEA said that it can be possible for electric cooperatives to engage in power generation especially that the country is suffering from power inadequacy.

"We need adequate power supply. The country is losing a lot of investors and investors are reluctant to invest due to the abnormality of our power supply. We need more power players to construct power plants," Bassig said in a separate interview.

Escudero further suggested that instead of bringing power to the people, electric cooperatives must bring people where power is, wherein by this way it's a lot cheaper to invest. – (FREEMAN)