CEBU, Philippines — Visayan Electric has strengthened its Interruptible Load Program (ILP) through a newly established partnership with four major industry operators in its franchise area in Metro Cebu.
Officials from Visayas Electric led by Engineer Daryl Bonbon, assistant vice president for customer services, yesterday signed a one-year agreement with four companies represented by SM Prime Group Asst. Vice President for Engineering and Design Development Operations - Visayas and Mindanao Earl Ledonio; Radisson Blu Hotel Cebu assistant chief engineer Cris Pimentel; Lucky Group Management & Dev Corporation’s (Gaisano Country Mall) Chief Financial Officer Alexis Gaisano; and J. King and Sons Company COO Susan King Bernardo.
The strategic partnership boosted the ILP capacity of Visayan Electric to 23 megawatts. This significant load will lessen the possibility of implementing rotational brownouts among Visayan Electric customers during times when power interruptions are inevitable to ration limited power supply in the grid.
The ILP was established by the Department of Energy (DOE) and Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and was first introduced in the Visayan Electric franchise in 2010. It allows companies with loads of at least 1 megawatt to voluntarily use their own stand-by generation facilities instead of drawing power from the grid to mitigate the energy supply deficiency.
Participating companies in the ILP are requested to ‘de-load’ or reduce their power consumption during peak demand hours, allowing them to contribute to the overall grid stability. In return for their cooperation, these companies will be compensated by Visayan Electric.
Companies who participate in the ILP will be compensated for their actual variable charges incurred (i.e., fuel cost) plus a certain margin, as will be agreed upon by the participating company and the Distribution Utility (DU).
Anticipating power supply issues after the DOE issued warnings early this year of possible yellow and red alerts in the Luzon and Visayas grid, as well as the forecasts of an El Nino, Visayan Electric revived its ILP program and proactively urging companies and industry players to participate in its interruptible load program to ensure adequate power supply and lessen the possibility of implementing rotational brownouts in its franchise area.
Visayan Electric last implemented the ILP in 2015 when there was a power supply concern after a generating plant's emergency shutdown. There were a total of 28 business customers who enrolled with the ILP at that time, with a total of 68 megawatts power requirement. — (FREEMAN)