Lanao del Sur, Marawi see end to power outages

Marawi City — Residents here and in Lanao del Sur are anticipating the end of daily power interruptions, which have been plaguing this city and the province for decades.

Marawi City Mayor Omar Solitario Ali said "there are positive signs that the almost 24-hour power outages in this city and the province of Lanao del Sur will soon end, if not minimized, following the opening of the National Power Corp.’s (NPC) Agus 1 50MVA."

Ali said the facility will be linked to the 69KV line, which is expected to be completed in the first quarter of this year.

"When this link is completed, there will be enough electric power for the city and province," Ali said.

At present, the NPC can only supply 16MW of the 22MW actual consumption of Marawi City, which explains the scheme of "rationing" electricity.

"On any day, we have about 10 power outages," he said.

During a recent meeting with NPC officials here, it was reported that the Lanao del Sur Electric Cooperative (Lasureco), which distributes electric power to this city and the province, has an outstanding debt of some P2.3 billion to the NPC.

Lasureco, which is facing administrative difficulties and problems brought by its 30-year-old technical infrastructure, had consistently failed to meet its obligations to the NPC.

Lasureco pointed to collection problems as the cause of the problem. It said that its collection efficiency is only seven percent.

But residents and the cooperative’s officers will challenge the NPC’s computation for Lasureco’s debt of P2.3 billion, saying that about 54 percent of this debt is due to "systems loss."

Moreover, it said that the "mother" electric meter for Marawi and Lanao del Sur is located at the NPC’s office in Iligan City.

The local government units (LGU) have proposed that electricity be distributed to town clusters so that collection will become the responsibility of the LGU.

Marawi City will also have a separate line and be responsible for collecting from its consumers.

Mindanao State University (MSU) and the surrounding barangays inside the sprawling campus have already signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the NPC for its own electric power supply. The university is responsible for its own collection, Ricardo de Leon, MSU acting president, said.