LEGAZPI CITY – German P. Silva, acting general manager of the National Power Corportion – Albay Electric Cooperative Inc. (NPC-Aleco) operation and management team, has vowed to arrest the frequent brownouts in the province of Albay.

        He made this promise before the members of the Sangguniang Panglalawigan last Tuesday.

        Silva, an NPC official assigned to manage the insolvent coop, said that since July 17, 2008 when NPC took over the operations and management of the ailing cooperative, the team is still in the process of inspecting and assessing Aleco’s facilities.

        Under the memorandum of agreement (MOA), personnel of NPC, the National Transmission Corporation (Transco) and Aleco are jointly

        Conducting the inspection and assessment of the coop’s facilities,

        “We hope to start the total rehabilitation of Aleco by November 2008, “Silva said.

        Asked by the members of the Provincial Board why brownouts have become more frequent under the NPC management, Silva blamed the lack of preventive maintenance of Aleco.

        In particular, he blamed vegetation, lightning and failure of equipment as the main causes of the unscheduled brownouts.

        Board Member Raul Borejan, chaiman, SP committee on power and energy, said Albayanos have been disgusted by their intermittent power interruptions causing damage to electrical appliances.

        “We supported the MOA signing because we had expected that the team would provide us with the status report of the operation but so far we haven’t received any information yet. We want a ready answer to our constituents regarding the frequent brownouts, “he said.

        Board Member Ostiano Calleja chided the NPC official for not answering the question on the causes of the outages.

        Silva explained that to clear the transmission lines of trees and other vegetations,they have to get the permission of the Department of Enviroment andNatural Resources (DENR). Some Aleco employees perform only 50 percent of their expected output.

        “While it is true that Aleco is overstaffed by 100 people but we could not lay them off because they are being reinstated by the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC), “ Silca said.

        Aside from technical problem, Aleco is also hounded by a huge financial problem to the tune of P 1.4 billion in unpaid bills to NPC.

        According to Silva, Aleco has about 1,000 kms of transmission lines all over Albay. It has a high systems loss: 1st district has average of 26 percent; 2nd district, 22 percent and 3rd district, 34 percent per month.