The Department of Energy and Manila Electric Co. have asked large power users to help secure the country’s power supply during the summer months by participating in the government’s Interruptible Load Program (ILP),.
DOE said delays in the completion of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities and high temperatures during summer are expected to have an impact on the country’s power supply next year.
Irma C. Exconde, DOE director of the Electric Power Industry Management Bureau, said that together with Meralco, they are banking on the support of big power consumers to help ensure the availability of sufficient electricity, especially in the summer months of 2023.
“We are already preparing for the contingencies for next year because of the challenges faced by the power sector,” Exconde said during the webinar.
Meralco and DOE also started their proactive campaign to encourage more companies across different industries to join the government’s ILP, which can help prevent power interruptions whenever the grid is placed on red alert.
“We aim to recruit more ILP participants and increase the available de-loading capacity under ILP,” Meralco VP and head for Enterprise and National Government Engr. Ma. Cecilia M. Domingo said during the webinar.
The ILP is a voluntary and demand-side management program that calls on big-load customers to temporarily de-load from the grid and use their own generating units or reduce their operations instead when there is insufficient power supply.
“Since 2014, ILP in the Meralco franchise area has been implemented 26 times and since then, the program has successfully spared as many as 1.8 million households from power interruptions,” Meralco lead specialist for generation and transmission economics Ma. Leticia Sapina said.
As of December 21, the total capacity available for de-loading in Meralco’s area is 563.89 megawatts from 267 participating accounts.
ILP participants like SM Prime Holdings and Waltermart Shopping Center Management also attested to the benefits of enrolling in the program.
Through the help of customers that include properties owned by the Sy family’s SM Group, Waltermart, Ayala Land, Belle Corp. and Citystate Centre Condo Corp., Meralco customers were spared from brownouts.
Gokongwei-led Robinsons Land Corp. also recently supported the ILP and enrolled 10 Robinsons Malls with a total committed capacity of 31 MW.
