Two years into the CENECO-Primelectric partnership, Negros Power has poured more than P1.2 billion into a P2.1-billion modernization program, putting to work a model that combines the local knowledge of an electric cooperative with the capital and management capabilities of a private-sector company.
Negros Power President and CEO Roel Z. Castro said the partnership was built on the complementation of strengths: CENECO brings its longstanding knowledge of the communities and consumers it serves, while Primelectric Holdings Inc. provides the capital, technology and management capacity needed to undertake major infrastructure upgrades.
The joint venture is now in its second year of operations, with investments going toward the replacement of deteriorating lines, substation upgrades, modern meters and projects aimed at improving reliability and reducing system losses.
The utility serves more than 220,000 active accounts across Bacolod, Bago, Talisay, Silay, Murcia and Don Salvador Benedicto.
The experience offers a different path for electric cooperatives facing aging infrastructure and financial constraints—one that seeks to preserve their local and community-based strengths while bringing in private-sector resources for modernization.
Primelectric proposed the partnership in 2023 as CENECO faced financial and operational challenges. It eventually acquired a 70 percent stake in distribution assets valued at more than P2 billion after CENECO member-consumers approved the joint venture through plebiscites.
To allay concerns, Negros Power said it retained and regularized more than 200 former CENECO employees and honored existing collective bargaining agreements, allowing the new operator to retain CENECO’s institutional and local expertise.
The company has also pursued its modernization program without increasing its basic distribution rates.
Among its flagship projects is the P79-million Lacson Street Underground Distribution System in Bacolod, which is replacing overhead lines with an underground network along a major city thoroughfare to improve resilience and address the proliferation of wires.
Negros Power is also setting aside P250 million for sitio energization projects covering 232 underserved rural communities.
More than 33 percent of its power supply comes from indigenous geothermal resources, reinforcing Negros’ position as a major renewable energy hub.
The company has cited improvements in system reliability, including efforts to eliminate insulator failures and reduce feeder losses, as early indicators of the modernization program’s impact.
Currently, stakeholders of the Northern Negros Electric Cooperative (NONECO) have begun exploring a similar joint-venture arrangement as the cooperative contends with persistent reliability concerns in its coverage area.
