Electricity restored in Albay town

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines — Power was restored in Rapu-Rapu, Albay on Tuesday, two days after the town was plunged into darkness as generator sets supplying electricity to households on the island were shut down over unpaid bills of the customers amounting to P32 million.

Lesley Capus, head of the Albay Power Energy Corp. (APEC) institutional relations and customer support department, said the restoration of power was in response to the request of the Department of Energy.

A virtual conference was set yesterday to determine who will settle the unpaid bills of consumers.

Capus said APEC is paying the National Power Corp. an average of P2 million in electricity consumption per month.

“APEC cannot afford anymore to subsidize the power consumption of Rapu-Rapu because we are also struggling in paying Albay’s arrearages to power suppliers,” he said.

Capas said APEC likewise assumes the 10-percent system loss in the province every month.

APEC had earlier asked Rapu-Rapu consumers to settle at least P15 million of their outstanding bills until last Friday to defer the shutdown.

Capus said the total amount collected since Monday last week was only P3.108 million.

He said only 658 of the 1,700 registered power consumers, including barangay associations, paid their bills either fully or partially.