Meralco users to account for up to 430 MW under ILP

Business World Online
Posted on October 10, 2014 06:06:00 PM

MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) said industrial clients within its service area are expected to account for up to 430 megawatts (MW) of capacity committed to the interruptible load program (ILP), a government initiative to mobilize private sources of electricity which will help address a shortage in Luzon next year.

“We expect that we’ll be able to sign up a total of about 430 MW under the ILP,” Meralco President Oscar S. Reyes told reporters on Thursday night on the sidelines of a contract signing in Makati City.

“We continue to work with various companies within our franchise area to be part of ILP,” he added.

Of the 430 MW, Mr. Reyes said around 290-300 MW that are already signed up for the program or are close to signing.

“These are already sort of committed capacities under the ILP and there’s still 130 MW potential capacity that we can tap,” he noted.

Power shortage is expected to hit Luzon next year, with latest figures from the DoE showing that additional 900 MW -- from 800 MW estimated previously -- will be needed to plug the deficit and meet the required reserves besides.

Asked if Meralco thinks ILP alone can solve the supply problem next year, Mr. Reyes replied: “I think we are going all out but we don’t want to over promise.”

In a published advertisement on Friday, Meralco said that as of Oct. 8, there are 22 companies officially enrolled under its ILP -- with combined capacity of 146 MW.

The ILP compensates large consumers for running their generators to meet their own power needs, thus reducing their need to tap the grid. The cutoff for the program is users with loads of at least 1 MW.

The utility’s customers participating in the ILP are SM Prime Holdings, Inc.; Robinsons Land Corp.; Waltermart Malls; Ayala Land, Inc.; Rustans Supercenters, Inc.; PLDT, Sun and Smart; Shangri-La Plaza Corp.; Alphaland Development, Inc.; Ortigas & Co.; and Megaworld Corp.

Also in the list are Xin Tian Ti Development Corp.; Sunstar Mall in Laguna; Makati Sky Plaza, Inc.; Prestige Tower Condominium; Power Concessionaires, Inc.; Feature Realty Holdings & Dev’t; ABC Development Corp.; Raffles Condominium Corp.; Manta Equities, Inc.; The JMT Condominium Corp.; Seda Hotel in Bonifacio Global City; and Citystate Centre Condominium Corp.

Business groups have been pushing for a more effective utilization of the ILP in response to the government’s call to build up energy reserves and avert potentially crippling outages next year.

They have expressed confidence that up to 700 MW can be enrolled under the ILP before the Dec. 19 deadline that the DoE set for the participants to voluntarily sign up under the program.

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry last month claimed that running ILP capacities for five hours for five days a week -- assuming fuel cost of P45 per liter -- “is estimated to increase the consumer’s bill by approximately P0.08 per kWh (kilowatt-hour) only for the month that the ILP is implemented.”

But it argued that utilizing ILP capacities will avoid even higher costs that could be incurred were the government to contract additional capacities under a “take-or-pay” fixed-term lease with government subsidies.

President Benigno S.C. Aquino III last month invoked the power crisis provision of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001, asking both chambers of Congress to issue a joint resolution that will authorize the government to contract additional capacity.

Both the Senate and House of Representatives have yet to come up with their versions of the resolution. -- Claire-Ann Marie C. Feliciano source