Senator Win Gatchalian urged the National Electrification Administration (NEA) to assume control over the management of Palawan Electric Cooperative (PALECO) amid power outages in the province.

NEA last week assigned Atty. Ivan Zamora, Department Manager at the company’s Management and Consultancy Services Office (MCSO), to be the Project Supervisor to oversee the operations of PALECO.

Latest NEA records show that in terms of System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI) performance, PALECO is not compliant with the reliability standards of 20 occurrences per year. Unplanned interruptions that are within the control of distribution utilities reached 27.34 in 2022 and 21.878 in 2023, according to Gatchalian.

He added that in terms of power quality, PALECO is also not compliant with the standards set by the Philippine Distribution Code.

“PALECO cannot fulfill its mandate of supplying sufficient and affordable electricity to Palawan, then maybe the responsibility of providing power in the province is better off in the hands of NEA,” said Gatchalian, backing calls made by consumer group Palawan Electric Member-Consumer-Owners (PEMCO) for NEA to take over the management of the said electric cooperative (EC).

“Malaking dagok sa buhay ng ating mga kababayan sa Palawan ang palagiang brownout. Dapat maglatag na ng pangmatagalang solusyon ang NEA at Department of Energy (DOE) sa lalong madaling panahon para sa kapakanan ng mga konsyumer,” said the lawmaker, emphasizing that PALECO is currently categorized as AA and classified as Yellow EC.

The AAA rating is the highest score given by the NEA to ECs that indicates full compliance by power distribution utilities on all parameters, with D being the lowest. ECs classified as Yellow means they do not comply with four or more of the three key performance standards and parameters of NEA’s guidelines.

In December 2018, NEA also took over the management of PALECO amid frequent power outages during that time.