The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) franchise may be spared almost 110 megawatts of electricity demand from several commercial establishments under the Department of Energy-led Interruptible Load Program (ILP) amid tight supply this summer.
The SM malls, Robinson’s Land Corp., Ayala Land Inc., Shangri-La mall chain, Walter Mart mall chain, Ortigas property group, and Megaworld Corp. committed to participate in the ILP, said Alfredo S. Panlilio, Meralco SVP and head of customer retail services.
The SM Group is said to have about 56 MW of power generation capacity from its diesel generators for its own use. Robinson’s Land is said to have 22 MW and Ayala Land rounds up the top three with 8 MW.
The rest of the available capacity comprise those from the Shangri-La mall chain, Walter Mart malls, Ortigas properties and Megaworld residences.
Under the ILP, establishments with large-capacity generation sets may be asked in times of high electricity demand to use their own generated electricity instead of drawing from the grid.
Establishments enrolled in the ILP program will then get paid for using their own power.
While the ILP would mean less sales for Meralco when participating establishments are asked to self-generate electricity instead of drawing from the grid, president and CEO Oscar S. Reyes said this was acceptable for the company since the ILP will only be invoked during emergencies.
If the ILP is not in place, Reyes said, Meralco may suffer load dropping and lose revenue anyway.
With the ILP in place, however, Meralco can at least serve other customers particularly households, which make up the bulk of its customer base.
According to DOE data, about 500 MW of electricity may be available from big power users in the whole Luzon grid (which includes the Meralco franchise) under the ILP. Manufacturing firms such as Asahi Glass Co. are also supporting the ILP, Petilla said.
However, Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said the ILP was only a back-up plan. It will be implemented only when supply is tight and prices at the spot market are too high.
Earlier, DOE officials met with big power users on how they can be more energy efficient and at the same time be prepared to use their own back-up power to ease electricity demand from the grid in times of tight supply.
The Luzon and Visayas grids are seen to have tight power supply while Mindanao is already implementing rotating outages due to a lack of power supply.