On January 19, 2017, Meralco, in partnership with the Department of Energy (DOE), Retail Electricity Suppliers Association (RESA), and National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), hosted the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) Implementers Forum for contestable customers at the Multi-Purpose Hall, Meralco Center, Pasig City. Out of the 110 customers who attended the forum, 85 are MPower partners.
With the Malampaya Scheduled Maintenance Shutdown on January 28 to February 16, 2017, the DOE foresees a potential impact to the availability of power supply. As in the previous years, Contestable Customers with generating facilities are encouraged to join the ILP to help mitigate such risk by deloading and utilizing their generators for their power source and lessen the supply they get from the grid when the need for this arises, or when the ILP is called upon.
RESA (Retail Electricity Suppliers Association) President Mr. Raymond Roseus opened the forum with his welcome remarks. Ms. Irma Exconde, DOE Assistant Director for Electric Power Industry Management Bureau, emphasized the need to participate in the ILP as a way to help build the nation – as another form of bayanihan. Mr. Fidel Dagsaan, Jr., one of NGCP’s executives discussed the power supply outlook during the Malampaya scheduled shutdown.
Mr. Larry Fernandez, Meralco VP & Head of Utility Economics, discussed the ILP protocol for contestable customers, mentioning that the ILP implementation in MERALCO spared households from experiencing rotating brownouts during supply shortages. Further, based on the 6 red alert incidents that occurred in 2016, average number of households spared from manual load dropping per incident is 740,000.
Mr. Roseus took the stage again to explain the RESA compensation process, and Ms. Agnes Macob, Head of the Competitive Market Group of Meralco, closed the forum with a timely reminder of the important dates and details pertaining to the implementation of the ILP.
