Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi on Tuesday urged government agencies with power generating units to enroll under the Interruptible Load Program to augment supply when reserves are thin.
“Under our Government Energy Management Program or GEMP, the Department of Energy has required 140 government entities to submit their electricity consumption from 2015 to 2016 to assess usage,” Cusi said.
“We are closely monitoring their energy consumption so that we can provide strategies to help them become more energy- efficient in their daily operations,” he said.
The ILP gives incentives to large power users to de-load from the electricity grid and use their own generating set instead to free up capacity when there is shortage of supply.
“The ILP seeks to convince big load customers of distribution utilities and electric cooperatives to register so they can run their stand-by generation sets in times of energy supply deficiency to prevent power outages,” Cusi said.
“Based on our GEMP survey, about 100 government buildings have operational gensets and these total to 85 megawatts of power supply capacity,” Cusi said.
The department issued the directive amid 20-day Malampaya power project maintenance shutdown that began January 28.
Cusi also ordered government agencies to adhere to energy conservation measures, which include setting the thermostat of air-conditioners to no lower than 25°C; replacing aircon units with inverter-type, and switching fluorescent lamps with light-emitting diode or LED lights.
The DoE also asked nearly 70 malls nationwide to set their cooling system’s temperature to 25°C to temper the demand of their buildings for electricity.
“We, the government, have to be the best examples to our people in managing our energy consumption,” Cusi said.
“Government agencies will continue stewarding our kababayans and private companies in achieving energy security for the country through efficient and judiciously managing electricity usage,” Cusi said.
Power rates are also expected to go up during the 20-day Malampaya shutdown as the three natural gas plants will be forced to use more expensive fuel.