The Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) has urged the public and private sectors to ensure sufficient power supply next month especially during the election week.
MAP enjoined consumers to adopt energy efficiency measures to save energy and reduce power demand.
MAP said distribution utilities and electric cooperatives in major demand areas should prepare or initiate their respective interruptible load program (ILP).
Under ILP, customers with large electricity consumption are encouraged to run their own generator sets whenever supply of electricity in the grid is short in exchange for monetary incentives. The fuel they will use in running their own power source are also paid by consumers.
The group called on the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to contract additional reserve power and link with power plants that are not yet connected.
It said the Energy Regulatory Commission can suspend the secondary price cap at the wholesale electricity spot market to further encourage power plants to operate efficiently.
For the long-term, MAP said the government should treat the protection and sustainability of the country’s energy infrastructure as a national security concern to stimulate the building of new generation capacity and avert possible supply gaps in the next ten years. – Jed Macapagal
