In exactly 23 days from today, April 22, 2026, the Emergency Power Supply Agreement (EPSA) between FICELCO and SUWECO expires.
And the agreement’s expiration without a new EPSA in sight brings with it the possibility that rotating brownouts would occur and affect all 62,000 member-consumer-owners in the Catanduanes island grid.
As of March billing period, the EPSA diesel generators operated by the Sunwest Water & Electric Co, accounted for nearly 19 percent of the total electricity running through the grid.
And that is about a million kilowatthours, roughly equivalent to five days of electricity, the basic service that every Catandunganon has come to depend on for lighting in their homes and power to run or charge their devices, particularly cellphones, electric fans and airconditioning units.
Remove the EPSA diesel gensets’ contribution to the power grid and the entire island could be plunged into darkness for roughly four hours daily.
The long-term solution is the entry of a new power supplier, but the Competitive Selection Process (CSP) that should have been completed in 2021 is still mired at the National Electrification Administration (NEA).
It may be recalled that the delayed CSP was supposed to be over by December 2025 but one of the two bidders (aside from SUWECO) questioned several provisions in the Terms of Reference, prompting the FICELCO Bids & Awards Committee to halt the bidding process to allow for a review of the terms.
With just over three weeks until the EPSA’s expiration, there is no more time to reasonably complete the competitive bidding for a new power supplier even if the revised TOR is finally approved today as the latter needs to pass through NPC and the Department of Energy (DOE) even before the countdown to the bid opening begins.
It should be noted that the current power rate for the electricity generated under the EPSA deal has substantially increased from P17.7869/kWh in January 2026, which is three pesos more than the subsidized rate, to P21 per kWh.
The joint petition of FICELCO and SUWECO seeking clarification from the ERC on the application of the subsidy on the EPSA power production has yet to be decided by the latter months after its filing.
Thus, the remaining option to the cooperative is to seek for a new EPSA, preferably one that would be covered by the government’s Universal Charge for Missionary Electrification (UC-ME) subsidy.
The FICELCO board, which now includes two new members including a lawyer, cannot sit on their fingers and ask the 62,000 member-consumer-owners to pray for rain.
That blessing from heaven is not likely to fall in the midst of summer, even if the FICELCO board joins the officials of the Virac Water District in mounting weekly novenas at the Immaculate Concepcion Cathedral to pray for a miracle.
This crisis is man-made and it has to be solved by the men and women tasked by consumers to ensure reliable and affordable supply of electricity.
It is not even certain if SUWECO has been paid its UC-ME subsidy collectibles amounting to over half a billion pesos by the NPC since last year when the private supplier’s precarious financial situation forced it to scale down its operations, leading to rotating brownouts of two-and-a-half hours.
The clock is ticking for both FICELCO board and management to find ways to forge a new EPSA with a power supplier, not necessarily SUWECO, that would allow consumers rest from the P21 per kilowatthour cost of the electricity that the current deal provides.
The alternative is dire: four hours of brownouts daily in the midst of summer and with fuel prices too steep to run a small generator at home.
The time for action was three months ago. Move!!!