Isabela electric co-op told to refund P30 M

ILAGAN, Isabela — The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has ordered an electric cooperative here to pay back some P30 million which it had overcharged its member-consumers in the past years.

This, after the ERC discovered that the Isabela Electric Cooperative II did not implement the higher rate of price reduction which it had ordered.

The ERC ordered the cooperative to return the P30,013,869.17 it had collected, representing the difference between the final rates and the amount provisionally approved by the commission that was supposed to have been deducted from July 2004 to September 2005.

ERC chairman Rodolfo Albano Jr., who hails from Isabela, said P21 million of the more than P30 million to be refunded would go to residential owners.

At least a million households, shops and other business establishments would also benefit from the refund.

"This will ensure the commercial efficiency of our businesses in the region and make them more cost-efficient," Albano said.

Three cooperative officials here were earlier suspended for another unauthorized power rate hike imposed in November 2005 and which lasted until last June.

Consumers in neighboring provinces earlier protested plans to increase the electric rates in their respective areas.

The ERC had ordered the electric cooperative in Nueva Vizcaya to also reimburse its member-consumers of millions of pesos in excess charges it had imposed for several years.

Based on an ERC order that should have taken effect last September, the Nueva Vizcaya Electric Cooperative (Nuvelco) was told to refund its member-consumers P73,263,111, representing the power purchase adjustment it had collected from February 1996 to July 2004.

The ERC directed Nuvelco to refund each consumer at the rate of P0.1992 per kilowatt-hour until the full amount is paid.

Consumers only learned about the ERC order to Nuvelco during a recent public hearing on the electric cooperative’s proposed rate increase and its plan to secure a multimillion-peso loan to enhance its service.