Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and the Department of Energy are promoting demand-side measures to manage electricity bills and support grid stability as the dry season starts amid geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
The utility and the energy department renewed a call for commercial and industrial establishments to adopt energy efficiency practices and join the Interruptible Load Program.
The ILP is a demand-side management initiative where large-load customers use their own generators or scale back operations instead of drawing power from the grid to prevent household power interruptions.
Officials highlighted the value of these measures during a “Powering Through Uncertainty” webinar for enterprise customers. While supply remains sufficient, the government and Meralco have intensified consumer education on energy-efficient technologies and the proper use of cooling appliances.
“We can see that there are no expected alert levels in the Luzon grid considering that all of the capacities will be available as expected and new power project investments will come online,” DOE Power Planning and Development Division officer-in-charge Noriel Christopher Reyes said.
While the grid is currently stable, officials said global tensions are putting upward pressure on fuel prices.
“How we consume energy is what we can control. Supply is outside of us,” DOE Energy Utilization Management Bureau director Patrick Aquino said.
“Think of energy efficiency as an opportunity, not as an obligation,” he said.
Meralco Generation and Transmission Economics lead specialist Ma. Leticia Sapina said the company is encouraging more enrollments to improve the effectiveness of the ILP.
“The frequency of deloading may be reduced if we can call on more customers. Within the ILP participant pool, we can also rotate who will be called to deload,” Sapina said.
As of February, 105 companies were enrolled in the program with a total deloading capacity of 513 megawatts. Meralco has spared as many as 3 million households from rotating power interruptions since it began implementing the program in 2014.
