BIZ BUZZ: NGCP’s invisible good news

When it comes to National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), there’s a lot of negative news about the firm being propagated to the public.

But the parties spreading the bad news about the operator of the country’s power grid make it a point not to give equal prominence to the firm’s achievements since its privatized era began in 2009.

And since practically no one asks for NGCP’s side nowadays, Biz Buzz took the liberty of asking the firm for data about its performance over the last decade and a half.

The most notable of these is that, in all geographic regions of the country, power consumers have been experiencing significantly fewer transmission outages since the 2000s.

From 6.47 outages for every 100 circuit kilometers of transmission lines in Luzon pre-NGCP, that number is now down to 1.33 outages.

For the Visayas, that number improved from 6.65 outages for every 100 kilometers of transmission lines to 0.95 today under NGCP management.

For Mindanao, the improvement was most dramatic from 8.07 outages while the government was operating the grid to 1.32 outages today under NGCP.

All the key metrics showed dramatic improvements since NGCP took over the power grid’s operations, be it having less frequent power interruptions, increased transmission system availability, or more stable transmission frequency and voltage.

The company has invested more than P300 billion improving the grid, representing an increase of over 800 percent from when government was running it.

The empirical data are compelling and undeniable. Yet NGCP’s woes with regulators and lawmakers continue unabated, leading some observers to ask: Is it really a problem with the company?

Or is it just a problem with one conglomerate that lost billions in revenue each year after NGCP decided to terminate their expensive ancillary service contracts?

—Daxim L. Lucas

IKEA’s online scam woes

The local unit of Swedish retail chain and home furnishings company IKEA is apparently still struggling to curb fraudulent online transactions which are scamming its Philippine customers out of their hard-earned money.

A source familiar with the matter told Biz Buzz that IKEA Philippines has already sought assistance from the Department of Trade and Industry, as well as the Philippine National Police to put a lid on the problem.

The same source said that the company would also hold another media briefing in the coming weeks or months to raise public knowledge about these scams and how to avoid getting bamboozled.

The company sounded the alarm bells earlier in March, holding a press conference where it revealed that there were 64 websites or sellers claiming to represent the company and that complaints from local customers about these fraudsters have ballooned to over 700.

While the individual transactions in these scams mostly fall within the P2,000 to P3,000 range, it has since accumulated to around P1.4 million, according to the company.

IKEA Philippines country sales manager Leontina Bucur had reminded customers that they only have a single point-of-sales channel and that is on their website, ikea.ph, warning local buyers to think twice about making their purchases elsewhere online.

—Alden M. Monzon INQ

Read Next

Don’t miss out on the latest news and information.

For feedback, complaints, or inquiries, contact us.