Aboitiz, 42 firms to address power shortage

MANILA, Philippines - AboitizPower Corp., the power generation company of the Aboitiz Group has partnered with some 42 local and multinational companies to help address the impending power shortage, expected in the summer of 2015, through the Interruptible Load Program or ILP.

Under the ILP scheme, big power users would be asked to run their own generators when supply is short in the summer months instead of getting their power from the Luzon grid. In exchange, they would be compensated for their fuel costs.

The electricity that would not be taken from the grid would be available to households and other users, sparing them from rotating blackouts.

The 42 companies are customers of AboitizPower who have volunteered to temporarily isolate themselves from the electricity grid when power demand is high so that the electricity could be re-directed to other areas.

The company said yesterday that as of December 2014, 42 contestable customers of AboitizPower’s Retail Electricity Supply (RES) companies have committed to the program with a total of 102 megawatts de-loading capacity.

Some of these companies are big multinational and industrial firms such as Procter and Gamble Philippines, Wyeth Philippines, Jollibee Foods Corp., Samsung Electro Mechanics Philippines Corp., Amkor Technology Phils., Asia Brewery Inc., Monde Nissin Corp., among others.

Visayan Electric Co. (Veco), Subic Enerzone and Lima Enerzone – all distribution utilities of AboitizPower, similar to Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), meanwhile, are pouring in an additional 75 MW of de-loading capacity from their 38 customers.

Through these commitments, AboitizPower with its customers, would contribute a total of 177 MW de-loading capacity to DOE’s ILP, said AboitizPower president and chief operating officer Antonio Moraza.

“We are committed to finding solutions to address the expected power supply shortage during the summer months of 2015. We thank our customers for their positive response to our call by supporting the ILP,” Moraza said.

On top of this, the company aims to get more support for ILP from the rest of its RES and DU customers, including from Mactan and Balamban Enerzones, tapping a potential 143 MW worth of additional de-loading capacity to be available for next year’s critical months.