JUMPIN’ Jack Flash is a song by English rock band Rolling Stones released in 1968.
It is also used as a moniker for the band’s frontman Mick Jagger with reference to his prancing about on stage during their live concerts. But we won’t talk about it for now, maybe in another column.
Meanwhile, Jumper is a 2008 American science fiction action film loosely based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Steven Gould. And yes, we won’t be talking about it, too.
We’re just using the song Jumpin Jack Flash and the film Jumper as some sort of teaser, call it foreplay, to the topic we are actually going to talk about.
After all the brouhaha, appeal to the emotions, playing the victim card and other tantrums were sorted legally and seems to have died down, perhaps it’s now the proper time to talk about one of the real and ongoing problems affecting the power consumers of “I Am Iloilo City”.
This is illegal electrical connections a.k.a. “jumpers”. An illegal electricity connection is made when a person attaches his home’s electrical circuit to the power grid without a meter. This is done without the consent or knowledge of the power provider. The power provider cannot monitor the electricity consumption and so the electricity is being stolen as these consumers do not pay for the electricity.
Some people make money by supplying illegal connections and others have no legal way to access electricity and so they resort to illegal connections. Others have access to legal electricity, but prefer not to have to pay for it.
Let’s have a bit of a background on the power provider of “I Am Iloilo City” past and present.
For almost 100 years Panay Electric Co. (PECO) was the sole power provider of “I Am Iloilo City” until last Jan. 19, 2019 when its franchise expired and it failed to have it renewed. Instead, Congress awarded it to MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) through Republic Act 112112.
On Feb. 20, 2020 Judge Emerald Requina-Contreras of t he Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 23 reiterated the grant of a writ of possession to MORE Power. She ordered the sheriff to place MORE Power in possession of PECO properties identified for expropriation.
On March 5, 2020 the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) revoked PECO’s Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) and also awarded the same to MORE Power.
This prompted Iloilo City’s Mayor Jerry Treñas to issue Executive Order Nno. 71 revoking PECO’s business permit.
For all intents and purposes and according to law, the sole power provider of “I Am Iloilo City” is now MORE Power.
So if we look at the timeline, PECO has served Iloilo City for almost 100 years while MORE Power has just been on the job – about three months; meaning, the problem of illegal electrical connections a.k.a. “jumpers” is something that was dumped on the lap of MORE Power on Day One and it has long been in existence during PECO’s watch.
The question that now comes to mind: what has erstwhile power provider PECO done about it? Was it tolerated or ignored? Perhaps both. After all, they just charged it back to consumers.
It is already empirical data that system losses due to electricity pilferage can reach 20 percent and cause power disruptions.
Simply put, illegal electrical connections a.k.a. jumpers are causing these major power interruptions besides force majeure.
It does not take a rocket scientist to know that an overloaded electrical connection will almost always break down if not catch fire, so an electrical connection overloaded with jumpers is a potential for two things to happen – power interruption and fire.
An illegal electrical connection or jumper is a criminal offense, a violation of the Anti-Pilferage of Electricity Act and Theft of Electric Transmission Lines/Materials Act of 1994.
Excerpts from the June 28, 2020 issue of Tribune.net.ph:
MORE Power president Roel Castro said they believe the huge number of illegal power connections in the city is the biggest factor behind the high electricity rates that Ilonggos had paid under the old utility, Panay Electric Co.
Likewise, electricity theft has been causing overloading in the system and damage to its equipment, including distribution lines and electricity transformers.
“The proliferation of illegal connections in the city, which has been a problem since the time of the previous distribution utility, drives up systems losses which are actually paid for legitimate consumers,” Castro said.
He said there is a possibility that several syndicates operate in the city that sell illegal power connections.
“We already identified them and in due time we will deal with them,” Castro said of at least one “organized group” behind the illegal connections.
A system study showed there could be 30,000 illegal power connections that raise the total systems losses to 20 percent.
Translated into wattage, illegal connections could account for as much as 20 megawatts of the 100 megawatts that Iloilo City consumes every day, he said.
Informal settler families have complained that they paid P20 per kilowatt hour of electricity they use every month to the syndicate that sold them their illegal connections, a high rate compared to the P9 per kilowatt hour charged by the company.
Perhaps next time there’s a power interruption, this should enlighten you what actually caused it./PN
