Shutdown?

A letter that circulated on social media recently apparently sent by Occidental Mindoro Consolidated Power Corp. (OMCPC) to Occidental Mindoro Electric Cooperative (OMECO) caused great alarm to netizens and not only to the latter’s member-consumer-owners (MCOs). The letter is supposed to be just between the two entities as far as I see it.

In the letter dated May 26, 2022, and addressed to Cesar E. Faeldon, NEA Supervisor of the EC, OMCPC said and I quoted here in verbatim “Please be informed that our plant can only operate up to June 1, 2022 at 0600 hrs, if we will continue to operate our 3 gensets at full capacity. This is in connection with our previous letter informing you that the plant will cease operation due to the reason that our fuel supplier will no longer deliver fuel to our plant site unless we settle our payments to them. Our existing fuel stock in the plant will only last up to the said date and we do not have any choice but to shutdown our plant operations." The letter was signed by OMCPC-SAMARICA Plant Head Edgardo D. Cruz.

Supposed internal correspondence such as this should be kept confidential between the EC and the power provider and should not be publicized because it may create public panic and it did. Having it posted on social media, it would draw unnecessary alarm, anxiety, and intrigue. With high probability, the letter leaked from the camp that would benefit from it. To me, making it public pressured, if not threatened, OMECO particularly its BOD to facilitate the release of the estimated 300M peso subsidy from the National Power Corporation (NPC).  

I attended in person the 41^st Annual General Assembly (AGMA) at Mayor Juan G. Santos Memorial Gymnasium in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro last Sunday, May 29, 2022, 3 days after the letter circulated on social media. Through teleconferencing, the AGMA has other two satellite venues, the Sablayan Astrodome and the Mamburao Municipal Gymnasium. The keynote speaker, Emmanuel P. Juaneza, NEA administrator, rendered his speech via zoom due to equally important commitment he has to attend in person.

The previous online discussions went overboard and went far as to conclude that the OMECO has an unpaid debt to OMCPC. The OMCPC people did not attend the AGMA for an unknown reason. So with other invited municipal and provincial officials. Only out-going mayor Romulo “Muloy” Festin of San Jose, the host municipality, who rendered a message and swore in the incoming BOD members attended the AGMA but immediately left after the oathtaking. I also spotted there SB Mercy Alvaran, also of said town sitting at the long and neatly covered table with immaculate white tetoron allotted for said officials-MCO.

In his report, the outgoing BOD President Rodolfo Plopinio made it clear that OMECO has no standing debt or whatsoever to OMCPC. They were ordered by the National Electrification Administration (NEA) to prioritize the paying of their supplier. Plopinio even added that their payment to the lone supplier is always in advance and concluded that OMECO does not owe OMCPC anything. Earlier today, May 30, 2022, OMECO had a advance payment of 65M pesos for OMCPC to settle their account to their fuel supplier, ergo, no shutdown is about to happen this coming June 1, 2022. They already got what they want.

If OMECO did not publicize the supposed internal letter from OMCPC, who leaked it? Be the judge, my dear readers.

In other developments, in 2021, there are 3 sources of power supply in the whole Occidental Mindoro according to the Power Supply Update presented by Engr. Celso D. Garcia, manager of the EC’s Technical Services Department: The OMCPC 20MW Bunker-Diesel Power Plant in Pulang Lupa, the Pag-Asa Grains Center, Inc. (PGCI), and the Net Metering Agreement (NMA) with Oriental Mindoro Electric Cooperative or ORMECO. The NMA is suspended at present due to a lack of supply in Oriental Mindoro. The PSA of 9MW in MAPSA was docketed on April 13, 2022 and there is already a Provisional Authority (PA) from ERC that was already posted in their website recently.

In sum, the demand for electricity in the whole province during peak hours is pegged at 27MW while they can only supply 24.5MW, therefore, the rotational brown-out we are experiencing since the start of this year.

The PSA for Sablayan’s 6MW Diesel Plant signed on January 12, 2022, was already docketed to Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) only last May 2, 2022, and soon it will be for commissioning, connection, replacement of the existing system, and in full service hopefully before December 2022. At present, we are just waiting for PA to operate before its full service (For specific details of the power supply update, you may contact OMECO on the matter-NAN).

Please be informed too that the PGCI is a biomass power plant and providing the company's excess power from 1.5 to 2MW. It is more cheaper for it is classified as renewable energy so it is exempted from taxes.

To set the record straight, again, OMECO has no debt whatsoever to the OMCPC. This is just a figment in the imagination of the irresponsible social media personalities and users and the enablers of the entity, the capitalists, and personalities that will benefit from the letter’s exposure to the public on the impending, alleged shutdown. The culprit/s in thinning out such external business correspondence broke the ethical standard in a business partnership.

Shame on them!

Still, OMECO continuous to be our favorite whipping boy, fall guy, and scapegoat rolled into one although most of the problems in electricity we are facing are rooted in various negligence and vested interests of top to bottom players, those who are in power, in business and politics alike, and their cahoots in the industry throughout the country including neoliberal laws and policies on energy that are anti-people. We singled  out our very own cooperative for blame.

Shame on us!