THE Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is extending the period within which interested participants of Interruptible Load Program (ILP) can sign up with the utility firm.
“Yes, we will continue to invite captive and contestable customers to participate and are targeting to formally sign up the ones currently under negotiations before January 31, 2015,” Meralco Utility Economics Head Lawrence Fernandez said in a text message on Wednesday.
The ILP is a government initiative meant to address the looming power shortage next year.
As of December 5, 141 companies have signed up for the program. This represent 593 megawatts (MW) of committed interruptible load (CIL) capacity.
Of the total number if ILP participants, 105 are retail electricity suppliers (RES) customers and 36 are Meralco customers. The RES have committed a total of 402 MW of capacity and 191 from Meralco customers.
Meralco continues to encourage RES and its customers to sign up with the program, which works by calling on business customers with loads of at least 1 MW to run their own generator sets, if needed, instead of drawing power from the grid.
With the ILP, power supply from the grid that will not be consumed by participating customers will be available for use by other customers within the franchise area. Through this, the aggregate demand for power from the system will be reduced to a more manageable level, helping ensure the availability of supply during the anticipated power crisis next year.
The program will only be part of the answer to the looming power shortages next summer. The ILP, likewise, does not guarantee zero brownouts, as it will only be implemented during the red-alert level of the power supply. A red alert means there is a supply deficiency.
Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla stressed the importance of implementing the ILP during yellow alert, or when power supply is thin and not during red alert.
The catch, however, is that consumers may have to shoulder an additional 8-to-10 centavo per kilowatt-hour when the said program is implemented during a yellow alert.
“The important thing here is to have power. If the ILP kicks in during red alert, then definitely brownouts will happen first before the program is implemented. That’s why I am requesting the Senate to allow ILP to run on yellow alert,” Petilla said. The House of Representatives has decided that the government will shoulder the additional cost for ILP participants whenever the program runs during red alert.
“In the House version of the joint resolution, the additional cost shall be passed on to the government. But we can’t wait for a red alert to happen first. However, if the cost is passed on to the consumers, the Energy Regulatory Commission [ERC] would have to conduct public hearings first, and we are not sure if the ERC can finish the hearings by March 1,” Petilla said.
The energy chief has proposed to the Senate for the ERC to do away with the public hearings and allow the Department of Energy (DOE) to come up with the implementing guidelines for its proposal.
“It is my hope that it won’t be passed on to the consumers. But if it is passed on, then I am asking the Senate to let the DOE come up with certain guidelines because the ERC may not finish the hearings by March next year,” Petilla said.