New ILP rules set for public hearing

CEBU, Philippines - The Energy Regulatory Commission has set a public consultation on the amendment of the rules governing Interruptible Load Program of distribution utilities.

ERC statement said all interested parties may submit their comments using the prescribed format on or before November 17, 2014.The public consultation will be on November 26, 2014.

ILP is a program where big power consumers or businesses operate on their own generation sets to spare other customers  from longer and more frequent brownouts.

ILP is also a scheme which provides compensation to companies in the large customer section with their own generator sets for voluntary interruption in their power supply especially during peak or emergency situations.

The ILP started in 2009 wherein projected brownouts that would have lasted for two hours have been cut down to an hour.

Here in Cebu, the Visayan Electric Company, the country’s second largest power distributor, has been implementing this since 2009.

The role of ILP has been magnified especially after super typhoon Yolanda wherein the 12 towns and one city in northern Cebu lost power for over one month as electrical poles and wirings all fell off.

Under the proposed draft rules, the objectives are to address the imminent power shortage and augment the limited power requirements of any grid in the country to ensure the timely compensation and reco-very of allowable expense related to the ILP entered into by distribution utilities and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.

It has also an objective to ensure transparent and reasonable prices of electric power service in a regime of free and fair competition and to achieve greater ope-rational and economic efficiency, to protect the public interest as it is affected by the rates and services of the distribution utilities and NGCP and to help maintain the security, reliability and quality of the supply of electric power.

The rules shall apply to all distribution utilities and their respective participating captive market customer, within their franchise area, to all distribution utilities that entered into a tripartite ILP agreement with a Retail Electricity Supplier and its participating contestable customer and the NGCP that entered into an ILP.  (FREEMAN)