Don Orestes Romualdez Electric Cooperative, Inc. (DORELCO) was established in June 21, 1971, thru declaration of PD 269, as Leyte Electric Cooperative, Inc. (LECI) financed by a Long Term Loan of Php28M to the government through National Electrification Administration (NEA) by USAID. At the start, it operated as a power generation company, with ten generators as source of power, supplying electric
ity to the towns of Burauen, Dagami, Dulag, Julita, Lapaz,Mayorga, Sta Fe, Pastrana, Tabontabon and Tolosa. In 1974, the name LECI was changed to LEYECO I, and expanding its franchise coverage area to Municipality of Abuyog, Macarthur, Mahaplag and Tanauan, while giving up Municipality of Sta. In 1976, in honor of the late Don Orestes Romualdez, owner of the land where EC’s headquarters is situated, the name DORELCO was created and used.With the commissioning of two PIELSTICK generator set in 1977, DORELCO supplied power to LEYECO II, LEYECO III and SOLECO. In 1981, another one unit MAN generator with the capacity of 2.2MW was again commissioned. On March 11, 1982 National Power Corporation commissioned the 112.5MW Tongonan Geothermal power, providing power requirements of DORELCO for a lower rates, while eliminating generation cost and eventually giving a power cost reduction to the end consumers, forcing DORELCO’s business to convert from power generation to power distribution. When NPC took over the administration of 69kV line in 1988, DORELCO lost average revenue per month of Php5.7M putting financial constraints for operational cost and liability obligations. These continued further in 1995 when SOLOIL, the large consumer of DORELCO decided to generate its own power thus increasing systems losses. Because of the worsening of its system, DORELCO resolved to secure financial assistance from other funding institutions for the purpose of rectifying deficiencies of its power distribution system by developing its facilities in order to comply the mandated operational standard on distribution services and connections to its customers within its coverage area consistent with the Power Distribution and Grid Code (PDC-PGC) and the EPIRA law. As per plantilla there are 172 positions where 118 of those are filled-up and 54 positions are vacant. Also there are 112 non-permanent personnel making a total of 284 employees. The Cooperative operates two (2) substations in the following locations and capacity:
San Roque, Tolosa 10 MVA
Picas, Javier 5 MVA
DORELCO’S Main Office is located in BarangaySan Roque, Tolosa, Leyte. The two (2) Sub-Offices are located in Burauen and Javier Leyte. The franchise area which is 164,426 hectares bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the eastern part and the mountainous range of the coverage area lies the Municipality of Burauen, Dagami and Lapaz on the western part while the Municipality of Abuyog, Javier and Mahaplag on the southern portion and the municipality of Tanauan on the northern side.
