The province of Catanduanes will experience rotational brownouts starting Saturday, Oct. 5, as the National Power Corporation (NPC) has postponed subsidy billings, according to Sunwest Water and Electric Co. (SUWECO).

SUWECO reported a scaled-down operation due to NPC’s delayed payments for subsidies for the utility company and that some have been overdue since May of this year.

This would mean that rotational brownouts may occur and would average up to three hours per day, affecting the areas of Catanduanes.

“From May [of this year], it has promptly been sending its subsidy billings to NPC but despite being duly received by them, the submissions are partially unprocessed and unpaid as of this writing,” SUWECO said.

There was also an attempt to send the subsidy payment for August, however, the power utility firm said that it was “unjustifiably refused” by the NPC Small Power Utilities Group (NPC - SPUG).

“This brings the cumulative outstanding amount due to SUWECO a total of P285 million,” it added.

According to SUWECO, this payment refusal stemmed from the Energy Regulatory Commission’s (ERC) decision to reject the application of First Catanduanes Electric Cooperative, Inc. (FICELCO) and SUWECO for its approval of the second amendment to their electricity supply agreement (ESA).

The power utilities firm, however, has reiterated a call to reconsider last March.

SUWECO stated that they have “repeatedly reiterated to NPC that its Motion for Reconsideration is still pending for resolution before the ERC, hence its Decision is not yet deemed final and executory.”

The company also highlighted that reducing billing collections is not allowed as per the terms of the Universal Charge for Missionary Electrification (UCME) Agreement.

Floro Barrameda, SUWECO business unit head, sought the consumers’ understanding as this would affect them via brownouts.

“We have done everything in our control to prevent this, but unfortunately, NPC has taken a position adverse to the member-consumers of FICELCO by its refusal to honor its obligations,” he said.

“While SUWECO remains committed and steadfast in providing reliable power to the residents of Catanduanes at a reasonable cost, the lack of subsidy settlements by NPC has resulted to operational constraints that led to these adjustments as we are not comfortable in collecting the full rate of electricity (without any subsidy) or the True Cost Generation Rate (TCGR) to the member-consumers for FICELCO since the rate will be higher and burdensome on them,” Barrameda elaborated.