NEA chief lauds Akelco accomplishments

BY BOY RYAN B. ZABAL

National Electrification Administration (NEA) chief Edgardo Masongsong lauded the accomplishments of Aklan Electric Cooperative (Akelco) amid mounting challenges. 

PHOTO AKELCO

Masongsong graced the 35^th Annual General Membership Assembly (AGMA) held in Gov. Augusto B. Legaspi Sports and Cultural Center in Kalibo, Aklan on September 1. 

“Akelco made me the NEA administrator dahil naging kasama ako sa change management team of NEA para ayusin ang Akelco noong 2002. Dito nag umpisa ang kaalaman ko sa electric cooperative kaya nagpapasalamat ako sa karanasan ko dito sa Akelco,” he said.

Akelco is serving 135,628 member-consumers in the whole province of Aklan and the two northern towns of Pandan and Libertad of Antique. 

Currently, Akelco has already energized 379 barangays out of 380. As of 2017, Akelco has achieved 88 percent of the Sitio Electrification Program (SEP) target or 985 sitios of 1,091 sitios.

By end of 2017, the total assets of Akelco increased by 8 percent to P1.850-billion compared to P1.708-billion in 2016. The liabilities also rose by 14 percent to P632-million from the previous year of P553-million. 

Akelco has been adjudged mega-large AAA power distributor with 95 percent collection efficiency, average systems loss of 9.78 percent and peak load of 64-megawatts. It is a top performing consistent category AAA for the last 5 years. 

Masongsong also urged member-consumer-owners in Akelco’s franchise area to support the proposed EC Consumers Bank (ECCOBANK).

“Imagine if more than 11 million electric consumers in the country will have its own bank,” the former 1-CARE party-list representative said.

Over 15,300 member-consumers of Akelco attended the assembly with the theme “Akelco: Continuously Soaring High Amidst Challenges”.