Meralco invites 57 firms to join ILP

Manila Times
October 20, 2014 10:08 pm
by RITCHIE A. HORARIO

THE MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) is currently negotiating with 57 companies to ensure their participation in the government’s Interruptible Load Program (ILP) to ease the anticipated power supply deficit in the summer months next year.
The ILP calls on industry players with relatively large stand-by generators to run these power units during peak hours to lessen the load in Meralco franchise areas.
“We are in negotiations with 57 large corporations for another 81 MW of deloading capacity,” said Larry Fernandez, Meralco head of utility economics.
Meralco said that some of the potential ILP participants include Megaworld Corp., Philippine Stock Exchange Center Condo Corp., Filinvest Asia Corp., PhilAm Properties Corp., International Rice Research Inc., Sun Life of Canada Inc., Ayala Land Inc., Petron Mega Plaza Condo Association, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Mercury Drug Corp., and Pacific Mall Corp. Fernandez said that as of October 15, at least 25 companies have already signed for the ILP. This translates to a deloading capacity of about 155 MW.
“This represents an addition of 40 MW from the portfolio of 115 MW we had as of September 8,” Fernandez said.
“We are confident that we will be able to sign up some of these (companies) within the next few days or weeks,” he added.
He said Meralco has been working with the government to identify public buildings with generating sets that may be tapped for the ILP.
Based on its own survey, Meralco has identified certain government establishments—national and local government units—with a cumulative generating set capacity of around 79 MW. It has submitted this information to the technical working group of the Joint Congressional Power Commission.
The power company is also coordinating with the Retail Electricity Suppliers to invite their customers into the ILP.   source