Power retailer Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and the Department of Energy (DOE) called on more companies to join the government’s Interruptible Load Program (ILP) to help ensure power supply sufficiency and avoid outages throughout the dry season.
The ILP is a voluntary and demand-side management program where big power consumers temporarily de-load from the grid and use their own generating units or reduce their operations if power supply is insufficient.
Meralco said the support of ILP participants proved to be highly critical in avoiding rotating power interruptions in the Meralco franchise area even after the Luzon Grid was placed under red alert for three days last week.
“Bayanihan continues to be our battle cry this year as we all try to do our part to mitigate the impact of El Niño on the power sector,” Meralco vice president and head of utility economics Lawrence Fernandez said.
Meralco has implemented the ILP 27 times in its franchise area since 2014. The program successfully spared around 1.9 million households from power interruptions last week.
“We call for your support and cooperation for the country’s objective of having continuous power supply by participating in the ILP and being part of the solution to the power supply challenges,” DOE director of the Electric Power Industry Management Bureau Irma Exconde said during a webinar organized by Meralco for its enterprise customers.
Meralco lauded the participation of the commercial and industrial customers in the program.
“The active participation of ILP participants in the Meralco franchise area in recent days is worth highlighting as it has greatly helped relieve pressure from the power grid, sparing thousands of small businesses and households from rotating power interruptions,” Meralco vice president and head for enterprise and national government Ma. Cecilia Domingo said.
Meralco is proactively engaging more customers to increase the available de-loading capacity under the program.
The total capacity available for de-loading in Meralco’s area is more than 500 megawatts from more than 100 companies as of April 2024.
Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said last week the agency was coordinating with the ILP participants and Meralco to ensure that they have adequate fuel supply to allow them continued participation in the ILP.
“Through our Oil Industry Management Bureau, we have alerted the oil companies so that we can ensure their customers of adequate fuel supply. Just like in the past, we are also coordinating with the MMDA for exemptions in the travel ban for delivery trucks for fuel supply whenever necessary,” he said.