CEBU, Philippines - The Office of the Press Secretary lauded the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) initiated by Governor Gwendolyn Garcia as an early solution to possible problematic power situation in Cebu.
Paul Hubahib of the Office of the Press Secretary, said in a press statement that the program undertaken by the Capitol in coordination with the Visayan Electric Company demonstrates how to best cope with problem situations by acting early and with resolve.
He said that the ILP was the resulting formula of a consultation between VECO and Garcia realizing that something has to be done to alleviate possible reserve level shortfall in the summer months.
“In the said program, entities with own generating capacity agree to deload, not to draw power from VECO when asked and thereby freeing up what would have been their demand for use by other consumers,” Hubahib said.
He said by January 2009, there were already three companies that signed up for the program and by April, there were already nine companies, bringing on a total of deloaded supply to 38 megawatts.
By April 13, the ILP was put to test when 11 MW were required from participants to prevent outage and in that week. Through the program, the establishments were able to contribute 18 MW mitigating what would have been a medium scale brown-out in the VECO franchise area.
“The massive outage which began in the morning of April 25 due to technical problems with Leyte-Cebu high voltage transmission line could no longer be handled by the Program, toop big a supply of power was lost,” Hubahib said.
Under the Interruptible Load Agreement, as VECO calls it, all stakeholders agreed to deload from VECO and other distribution utilities when the need arises. Big power consumers are asked to generate their own power whenever there is a shortage.
The deloading last March 31 was the first time VECO implemented the agreement after its signing last January.
VECO, on the other hand, shall pay the customer compensation for full or partial deloading when they deload from VECO as requested.
The amount represents the incremental cost incurred by the customer due to the deloading.
With power reserves in the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid already reaching a critical level, VECO was requested by National Grid Code of the Philippines to shave off 9.5 MW of power.
The Memorandum of Agreement for the implementation of the ILP was signed last January 30 between the Cebu Provincial Government, Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, and Cebu Business Club to address the power shortage. —Ferliza C. Contratista/WAB (THE FREEMAN)