More power cooperatives hike performance ratings

MANILA, Philippines — More electric cooperatives (ECs) under the supervision of the National Electrification Administration (NEA) have improved their performance and are fully compliant with key performance standards (KPS) in 2017.

In NEA’s latest EC Overall Performance Assessment, the ECs that were rated AAA rose to 87 from 78 in 2016.

Of these, 33 ECs received an overall score of 100, which is higher than the 24 ECs that garnered 100 points from the previous assessment.

All power distributors in Regions 6 (Western Visayas), 7 (Central Visayas) and CARAGA attained AAA rating, making them the highest performers.

Meanwhile, Region 8 is the most improved region with 10 of its 11 ECs earning the AAA categorization from the state-run agency.

The assessment also revealed that 76 ECs maintained their AAA status while 20 ECs showed improvement in ratings, 11 of which were upgraded to AAA category.

NEA evaluates and determines the overall performance ratings of all ECs annually using two criteria—KPS (80 percent) and EC Classification (20 percent).

The agency uses the AAA rating as the highest score given to ECs, indicating the power distributors’ full compliance on four parameters, namely financial, institutional, technical and reportorial requirements. The D rating is the lowest.

Results of the recent assessment also showed that 83 percent, or a total of 101 out of the 121 ECs supervised by the agency, have been given ratings or have AAA, AA or A status last year.

Of the remaining 20 ECs, four improved their performance either from C to B or D to C, 13 ECs manifested improvement in total scores while three retained their performance level.

Even with the positive assessment, NEA administrator Edgardo Masongsong pushed ECs to keep upgrading their services and remain responsive to the needs of their member-consumer-owners (MCOs).