The Central Negros Electric Cooperative, Inc. (CENECO) is one of the 121 electric cooperatives in the Philippines. It was incorporated on February 24, 1975 in Bacolod City, in the Province of Negros Occidental.

CENECO initially serviced Silay City; on May 16, 1976, it took over the electric system of the Municipality of Murcia. On June 1978, with the help of the national government, CENECO purchased and took over the A. S. Diaz Electric service (ASDES) which served Bacolod City and Talisay. The following year, on June 1979, CENECO took over the Bago Electric System and Ma-ao Electric System in Bago City.

At this time, CENECO’s generating units were hard-pressed to keep up with the load demand of its coverage area. CENECO had to resort to load shedding, which included scheduled brownouts. The power shortage was relieved with the coming of the power barge from the National Power Corporation on June 16, 1981. This was stationed along Bacolod’s Reclamation Area Project and augmented CENECO’s electric power supply.

Beginning July 4, 1984, the Palinpinon Geothermal Power Plant started supplying power to CENECO. The plant, located in Brgy. Palinpinon not far from Dumaguete City, became the main source of power for Negros Island. It supplied CENECO, VRESCO, NOCECO, NORECO I and NORECO II.

Other typhoons also contributed their share to the damage and to the losses of the cooperative. Typhoon Puring in 1994 and Typhoon Pepang in 1995 caused setbacks to CENECO’s efforts to recover.