AboitizPower backs ILP

MANILA, Philippines - AboitizPower, the power generation company of the Aboitiz Group, has thrown its support to the government’s Interruptible Load Program (ILP) to avert a looming power shortage next year.

The company said its distribution utilities Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) and Davao Light and Power Co. have been using the ILP since 2009 after Veco introduced it that year to aid the Visayas grid, which at the time suffered from blackouts.

Veco chief operating officer Sebastian Lacson said many players in the Visayas with generation capacity have participated in the program.

“With the help of the province of Cebu, it was not difficult to convince customers with generation capacity to participate.  Since then, Veco and Davao Light have around 90 MW of participants,” Lacson said.

Under the ILP program, participating companies with private generator sets are compensated for their fuel and other variable costs.  Participation is voluntary.

In the case of Veco or Davao Light, when these distribution companies see a power shortfall, they would identify which participating company would be best to tap for the requirement.

To strengthen the program, the Aboitiz Group proposed to convert some ILP agreements into power purchase agreements. Under this proposal, once a company agrees to be part of the PPA, it should be able to run whenever it is necessary and not just on a voluntary basis.

Lacson noted that in November and December 2013 when the Visayas suffered from a huge power shortfall due to Super Typhoon Yolanda, the ILP covered 43 percent of the supply shortfall.

To date, Veco has 64 megawatts and Davao Light has 26.5 MW of ILP contracted capacity, composed mostly of large corporations, hotels, government institutions, and shopping malls, according to the company.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is also looking at the ILP to address next year’s looming power shortage in case President Aquino decides not to declare a state of emergency in the power sector.

Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla proposed to invoke Section 71 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA), the power reform law, to put the power sector in a state of emergency and give the government temporary authority to tap additional power capacity.