Veco calls on more firms to join de-loading program

CEBU, Philippines - Amid the insufficient energy supply that Cebu has been experiencing lately, the Visayan Electric Company is hoping for more big establishments in Cebu to partner with them in the Interruptible Load Agreement.

Veco vice president for administration and customer services Ricky Lacson said they are hoping that more huge establishments in the city will take part in their scheme to generate their own power during power shortages as it will greatly avoid interrupting the power supply of other consumers.

The Interruptible Load Agreement was implemented by the company early this year in order to address the lack of power supply from the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid, which is the biggest source of energy of the region.

In the Interruptible Load Agreement, all stakeholders agreed to deload from VECO and other distribution utilities when the need arises. The deloading last March 31 was the first time VECO implemented the agreement after the signing last January.

The energy saved could be distributed to parts of the city where there are shortages. These establishments that use huge amount of energy are asked to generate their own power in times of shortages.

In the agreement, VECO will pay the customer compensation for full or partial deloading when they deload from VECO as requested.

Lacson said that so far they have around nine major stakeholder partners and they are seeking to have more establishments by next year such as the big hotels in the city. 

Some of the private stakeholders that have signed the agreement with VECO earlier this year were SM, Ayala, San Miguel and E-mall.

Waterfront Hotel also replied to a request of VECO early this year to deload power after power plants had technical problems causing power shortages in the city.

But Lacson said that as they find means to address the power shortage in the city, they are also asking the general public to do their part in conserving the use of energy even in their own households.

He said that especially in the holiday season, the use of Christmas lights should be minimized and used only when needed.

The Cebu Energy Development Corporation earlier revealed in the same forum that the energy supply in Cebu has been negative since the start of this year and is in critical condition.

VECO shared the same sentiments and said that Cebu ’s power supply reached critical state in the past few weeks.