RLC enrolls in Meralco’s interruptible load program

The Manila electric Co. (Meralco) has included Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) in its Interruptible Load Program (ILP), bringing to 122 the number of companies within the utility firm’s franchise area that are currently enrolled in the program.

Under the ILP, Meralco will ask big load customers to temporarily de-load from the grid and use their generator sets when there is supply deficiency and power interruptions are imminent.

Meralco and RLC signed on Tuesday a deal for the ILP enrollment of 10 Robinsons Malls, which have

a total committed capacity of 31 megawatts (MW) that can potentially spare around 124,000 households and small businesses from the inconvenience of unplanned power interruptions.

The participating malls are Robinsons Place Malolos, Robinsons Town Mall Malabon, Robinsons Place Manila-main, Robinsons Place Manila-midtown, Robinsons Place Las Piñas, Robinsons Place Antipolo, Robinsons Magnolia-extension, Robinsons General Trias, Robinsons Galleria South, and Robinsons Tagaytay Summit.

With RLC included, the combined de-loading capacity of Meralco’s ILP participants is around 583MW.

“Robinsons Malls has always been a steadfast partner of the government and fully supports the ILP program to help address power and energy contingency requirements, should the need arise,” RLC Executive Vice President Faraday D. Go said.

Meralco continues to encourage customers to enlist in the ILP. With commercial and industrial segments accounting for a huge part of Meralco’s customer base, which stood at 7.46 million as of end-march this year, the utility firm stressed that cooperation and support of its bigload customers are crucial to the success of ILP.

“We continue to enjoin our large load customers to participate in ILP so that, in the eventuality of a crisis, we have the contingencies in place to prevent brownouts. Fortunately, the projections on the dips in power supply did not affect much of our customers, as we always find ways and means to anticipate our customers’ needs,” Meralco Chief Commercial Officer Ferdinand O. Geluz said.

Meralco said there are no immediate threats of supply deficiency. However, in the event that the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines places the grid on red alert, Meralco has put in place contingency measures that include the ILP to ensure the delivery of continuous, stable, and reliable electricity service to the customers within its franchise area.