ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – The Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative (Zamcelco) has recovered during the first nine months of 2011 a total of 1,731,693 kilowatt-hours (KWHs) with an estimated value of at least P10,320,890.28 from its system loss (SL) caused by power pilferage perpetrated by some unscrupulous member-consumers.

Electrical Engineer Jesus Y. Castro, the National Electrification Administration (NEA)-designated Zamcelco acting general manager and concurrent project supervisor, said that when he first assumed office in January, this year, he immediately noticed the cooperative’s unusual huge system loss due to pilferage, which consequently weakened the company’s financial strength.

Losing no time, Castro – with the all-out support of the new Zamcelco Board of Directors – formed the “Task Force System Loss Reduction” composed of 12 members – four each coming from the Zamcelco, Pagadian City-based Zamboanga del Sur Electric Cooperative (Zamsureco) I, and Zamboanga del Sur Electric Cooperative (Zamsureco) II based in Zamboanga Sibugay’s capital town of Ipil.

Castro, a former NEA multi-awarded general manager of Zamsureco II, soon fielded throughout Zamboanga the members of the task force whom he divided into three technical groups each having a team leader and directed them to physically inspect the electric meter connections of all residential and commercial buildings in the city’s commercial center, urban and suburban barangays (villages) and rural areas.

A few weeks later, the task force reported to Castro its initial findings which, among other things, revealed rampant pilferage of electric current by not a few individual household and establishment member-consumers through unlawful means, including the use of “jumpers,” use of power reduction devices, direct connections to cable lines, and illegal extension of lines from residential buildings to owners’ adjacent business shops like Internet cafés.

Castro said the task force initially identified at least eight urban villages where it discovered rampant electricity pilferage.

These included Rio Hondo, Mariki, Mampang, Talon-Talon, Santa Catalina, Baliwasan, Suterville, and Baliwasan Chico.

Consequently, the Zamcelco acting general manager sought the assistance of the local National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and City Police Office to have the suspected pilferers be investigated so that appropriate charges can be filed by the cooperative against them.

Castro bewailed that rampant pilferage has caused the cooperative’s debt to soar to about P800 million, prompting the National Power Corporation’s (NPC’s) Power Sector Asset and Liability Management (PSALM), and National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), to nearly cut off power to Zamcelco early this year.

Castro noted that during this year’s first nine-month period, the company –through various cost-saving steps and anti-pilferage measures – recorded its biggest power recovery in April when it regained 598,355 KWHs worth some P3,596,130 – based on one KWH costing P6 – followed by May with 397,684 KWHs valued at P2,384,104; June – 252,539 KWHs at P1,5125,234, July – 110,177 KWHs at P661,062, and September with 102,570 KWHs at P657,420.