By Danessa Rivera (The
Philippine Star) | Updated October 9, 2016 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - The National
Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) urged more participants under the
Interruptible Load Program (ILP) to help ease load requirements and address
imminent power shortages in the grid during high demand times.
The grid operator was directed by
Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi to pursue its ILP to address the recent spate of
power deficiencies.
The ILP is a demand side management
scheme set by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to ease the impact of
tight supply during yellow and red alert periods.
“We want to make sure that power
supply remains stable and reliable, most especially when supply is critical.
Right now, the best and quickest way to do this is to work hand-in-hand with
our partners, and fully implement the ILP,” NGCP said.
Last July, the Luzon grid was placed
under yellow and red alerts as several power plants tripped, resulting in power
interruptions.
Under the ILP, consumers such as
large malls, industrial plants, and economic zones use non-grid sources of
electricity such as generator sets.
NGCP’s Directly Connected Customers
(DCC)—such as large malls, industrial plants, and economic zones—may
voluntarily enter into an agreement, where they may be requested to run back-up
generators to partially decrease or completely cease drawing power from the
grid in times of an electricity supply shortage.
“Theoretically, any consumer
connected to the grid who also has a back-up generation unit is a potential ILP
supplier,” NGCP said.
Once these customers use their
gensets, NGCP is able to minimize or prevent manual power curtailment or load
dropping when there is not enough power in the system, specifically when the
system net operating reserve is less than 350 megawatts.
Participating DCCs will be
compensated for the internally generated power by NGCP through a formula
provided by ERC.
The ILP was initially developed in
2010 by the ERC for implementation by distribution utilities in Visayas and
Mindanao to address the imminent power shortage in said regions.
In 2014, the ERC also allowed
Meralco to implement the same program within its franchise area. The program
was further extended to other distribution utilities, ecozones, and NGCP’s
directly connected customers in 2015.
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