ILOILO – Community quarantine restrictions brought about by the coronavirus pandemic forced people to stay home, pushing power consumption up.
Since last year, power consumption in residences increased in areas served by the Iloilo Electric Cooperative 1 (ILECO 1), according to Engineer Miguel Paguntalan, general manager.
The towns supplied by ILECO 1 are Oton, San Joaquin, Tigbauan, Tubungan, Miag-ao, Igbaras, and Guimbal in the 1st District; Alimodian, Pavia, San Miguel, Santa Barbara, Leon, and Leganes in the 2nd District; and Cabatuan and Maasin in the 3rd District.
According to Paguntalan, electricity consumption in these areas since 2020 was higher than those in the past two to three years prior to the pandemic.
Before the pandemic, the peak season or months with high energy demand were March to May, and December.
“I-compare mo two to three years ago nga wala pandemic ang bill mo kag sa subong, daw nag-double,” Paguntalan told Panay News.
“Ang mga tawo subong wala gid masyado nagalagaw, biskan ang mga kabataan ara lang sa ila balay,” he added.
In particular, Paguntalan pointed out that children do not go to school; they are home taking online classes. Meanwhile, parents who used to work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. may have been on a work-from-home setup.
“Halos ang tanan ara sa balay so nagagamit ang tanan sang electric fan, television kag air-conditioning. Akon gani daku man konsumo ko,” said Paguntalan.
While power consumption in the residential sector increased, industrial or commercial consumption decreased. This was because some closed their offices; others observed a four-day workweek; while others adopted work-from-home arrangement.
“Nag-slowdown ang activities kon tan-awon mo sa ila sector,” Paguntalan said.
Despite the decrease in power consumption in the industrial and commercial sector, Paguntahan said ILECO 1 will still have economic gains.
Paguntalan said, for instance, if a commercial building’s rate is P10 per kilowatt hour (kWh), it would pay 60 percent for power generation, 10 percent for transmission line and 12 percent tax.
The price per kilowatt hour of ILECO 1 is P11 for residential consumers and P9 for commercial and industrial consumers.
According to Paguntalan, of the 170,000 consumers of ILECO 1, 135,000 belonged to the residential sector.
‘PANTAWID LIWANAG’ PROGRAM
To help consumers, especially the needy, ILECO 1 introduced the “Pantawid Liwanag” program in 2020. Consumers with 30-kWh consumption or less need not pay their bills.
“We made it our responsibility to assist our consumers even in a very small way nga indi sila madulaan sang kuryente during the pandemic,” said Paguntalan.
He estimated that more or less 40,000 of 170,000 consumers of ILECO 1 availed themselves of the program.
Aside from that, between March 2020 and October 2020 or for seven months, ILECO 1 did not conduct disconnections on consumers unable to pay their bills.
“I think we are the only one siguro nga wala nag-impose sang disconnection halin sang March 2020 until October 2020, almost seven months nga wala kami nag-disconnect para lang makabulig kag makasuporta sa aton consumers , especially those nga hard-up gid,” Paguntalan added./PN
