Board directors want tougher measures vs spaghetti wires
The BENECO Board of Directors wants tougher measures imposed on the owners of those spaghetti wires that continue to dangle a negative image for the electric cooperative aside from jeopardizing the city’s efforts to make the streets safe and environment friendly.
The directors want the joint pole agreement (JPA) the electric cooperative signed with cable and telecommunication companies reviewed to determine how to improve the protocols set in place when the wires and cables go astray.
There are around six utilities that have signed a JPA with BENECO but Steve Cating, BOD chairperson, echoed what the other directors observed – that these utilities simply ignore their obligation to fix their wires that have gone haywire or their inability to send their maintenance crew with urgency during emergency situations.
The management of the electric cooperative informed the board in their recent meeting that BENECO has not been remiss in reminding the utilities, in their capacity as lessees of BENECO’s poles, of their obligations under the agreement, particularly on the matter of making clean the way they attach the cables to the electric poles.
The cooperative officials appreciated the chat group among cable companies and BENECO that was initiated by the mayor’s office of Baguio City that offered a platform to directly communicate with cable and telecommunication companies to fix their spaghetti wires.
City officials have lambasted these utilities for the unsightly layout of their wires and cables even as they reiterated the for them to fix, relocate, or remove their dangling cable wires that are attached to BENECO’s poles and posts along the roads, saying these wires pose a danger to the general public’s lives and properties.
Artemio Bacoco, department manager of BENECO’s power generation and operations department, said these utilities have the habit of not retiring their wires and cables whenever they replace.
“We have been meeting with them at least once a week in the past to thresh out concerns about their wires and insisting to them that the said meetings will be revived can at least help solve the “Bacoco, who once headed the electric cooperative’s network services department (NSD), said.
Director Josephine Aclayan of District 2 raised the possibility of having color codes for each of the utilities to easily identify the company concerned once a problem occurs.
But Roy Olatic, the nsd officer-in-charge, said that the said idea has been floated in the past but it is difficult to impose the measure since cables and wires are universal in nature.
“There is a company whose wires have a blue stripe but the strip could not be easily distinguished from the other wires,” Olatic, an engineer, said.
The JPAs signed by the cable and communication companies require them to bundle or cluster their wires to prevent them from sagging and for them to observe the required safety clearance.
They are also required to install color coded tags or attached any identifying mark or design based on their approved national standard. **(DOC)
