THE National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms (Nasecore) on Friday expressed its full support to the Department of Energy (DOE) for pushing with the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) to help address the supply deficiency in Luzon next year.
In a letter to Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla, Nasecore President Pete Ilagan urged the government to persuade ILP participants to ask only for a minimal fee.
“Aware of the high cost of operating diesel plants, like those standby gensets, we humbly seek the persuasive powers of the government to appeal to the owners to charge only the operation and maintenance cost, sans capital recovery component, in emergency situations like the occurrence of massive power outage which adversely affect economic gains,” Ilagan said.
Under the ILP, customers with large loads, like commercial establishments, will be asked to operate their own generator sets if the grid operator projects a need to augment generation capacity in the Luzon grid. 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 season.
Targeted ILP participants are those with large embedded generation capacities, such as malls, large business establishments and factories.
“We look forward to a less expensive ILP, which will be a lot more acceptable to people already suffering from current inordinate cost of electricity,” Ilagan said.
At the same time, the group urged the Aquino administration to create a Special Power Committee that will be tasked to collate all information that would be useful for the committee members in drafting a recommendation on what type of generation plant and how much should the capacity be per megawatt should the government tap one. The proposed committee can function for at least six months to one year.
Also, Nasecore asked the President to call for a review of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act so as to give the DOE ample powers that will effectively allow it in ensuring the sufficient, reliable, stable and secure electricity supply.
“We welcome the announcement to seek emergency powers from Congress…. We know this emergency power will result in the least cost of supply of electricity,” Ilagan added.