The Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative (INEC) has purchased brand new vehicles as part of efforts to further improve its services in the province.

Worth around PHP25 million, the new vehicles — which include three manlift trucks and 16 L300 vans — are intended to speed up mobile line patrol and power restoration efforts during times of disaster, according to INEC assistant general manager Cipriano Martinez III.

“This is just the first phase of improving our equipment and facilities,” Martinez said in a media interview on Friday after a thanksgiving Mass and blessing of the newly acquired vehicles at the INEC main office in Barangay Suyo in this town.

“We need to upgrade our services to keep up with the fast growth rate of the province.”

Martinez noted that most of INEC’s equipment are already dilapidated, prompting them to procure new ones for the benefit of member-consumer-owners.

He added that another set of new equipment and materials for linemen are expected to arrive in the coming weeks.

Since last year, the lone power distribution utility in Ilocos Norte has been upgrading its distribution system to solve perennial power outages.

These include the establishment of additional substations and increasing the capacity of existing substations and transformers to avoid overloading or underloading.

“The goal is to restore power as quick as possible and to become efficient in distribution,” Martinez said.

To date, the average daily electricity demand of INEC’s more that 183,000 members is from 56 to 80 megawatts. The firm has a 98-percent collection efficiency. (PNA)