BAGUIO CITY – The Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO) is awaiting the release of about P90 million from the State-run National Electrification Administration (NEA) to energize some 79 sitios in the 13 towns of Benguet to fulfill its mandate of bringing quality power to the countryside through a reliable power distribution system.
BENECO General Manager Gerardo P. Verzosa claimed all the programmed energization of the 79 sitios that have undergone proper validation by the NEA technical personnel will be implemented anytime as soon as funds are released.
“We are simply awaiting the release of the funds so we can bring electricity to the identified priority sitios which is part of our mandate to energize the countryside. The electrification of sitios, especially the non-viable ones, is enshrined in our mandate that is why rural electrification will continue as long as there are sitios established within our franchise area,” Verzosa stressed.
BENECO pioneered the implementation of the energization of sitios when it acquired a P100 million loan from NEA to bring quality electricity to hundreds of sitios in Benguet before the previous administration came out with the Sitio Electrification Program (SEP).
The BENECO official said the target sitios included in the government’s rural electrification program were prioritized based on existing technical requirements and guidelines of the NEA while the energization of other un-energized sitios in the different parts of the province will be subjected to future funding requests as rural electrification is one of the continuing programs of the government.
According to him, there are still more or less 300 sitios in Benguet that remain un-energized but efforts are being done by the rural electric cooperative, in coordination with concerned government agencies, for the continuous provision of funds to sustain the realization of the program, particularly in bringing electricity to non-viable communities within its franchise area.
Verzosa underscored that despite providing electricity to non-viable communities in its franchise area in Benguet, BENECO is able to maintain the cheap power rates it charges to its increasing number of member-consumer-owners in Baguio and Benguet through the combined efforts of officers and employees in improving the reliability of the power distribution system, among other efforts to make the rural electric cooperative competitive.
BENECO is one of the few Class AAA rural electric cooperatives operating in the country and is also among those that offer to its consumers one of the cheapest power costs, even much lower than the prevailing power cost of private power distribution utilities like Meralco.
Verzosa assured BENECO consumers the rural electric cooperative will continue to explore possible ways and means to keep its power rates at a level beneficial to them without sacrificing the quality of services being provided amidst the emergence of competitors in the highly competitive industry.
By HENT
