ERC acts on Visayas Power Supply Problem
The ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission) recently authorized the Visayan Electric Company (VECO) to implement its proposed De-Loading Program, as well as the Interruptible Load Agreements that it has already executed with certain Wholesale Power Customers, to help ease the critical power supply situation in the Visayas.
Under the De-Loading Program, VECO’s participating customers will enter into an Interruptible Load Agreement (ILA), where they will be “de-loaded” in times where there is a deficiency in the power that VECO requires to supply all its customers. These participating customers are those that have the ability to generate their own power at times when they are “de-loaded” or the supply to them by VECO is “interrupted.” For agreeing to this, participating customers are compensated since by generating their own power they may incur higher costs for running their standby generating sets or plants than when their power is supplied by VECO. This compensation, in turn, is shouldered by all the other customers of VECO who were benefited by their voluntary de-loading, since these other customers did not experience brownouts as power was made available to them at times where there was already a deficiency of power that VECO can supply to all its customers. The formula for computing this compensation is already provided in the ILA and, based on sample computations, the rate impact on the consumers is minimal as compared to the economic benefits resulting from a continuous supply of electricity.
While it has already provisionally approved VECO’s De-Loading Program, the ERC recognized that there are still implementation details that have to be sorted out. For this reason, the ERC directed VECO to submit within thirty (30) days the detailed procedures and protocol for the program’s implementation.
“The ERC is optimistic that the successful implementation of the De-Loading Program, initially in the VECO franchise area and perhaps later in other parts of the Visayas, with the cooperation of all the stakeholders, will help ease the supply shortage in the Visayas and ensure brownout-free months ahead,” ERC Chairperson Zenaida G. Cruz-Ducut said.
July 24, 2009