Manila Electric Company (Meralco) on Thursday urged customers to join the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) to help manage higher electricity demand during the hot, dry months.

In a news release, Meralco said Department of Energy (DOE) officials, during a recent webinar, said that to date, they do not expect any alert levels during the season.

However, the DOE still reminded consumers to remain mindful of energy use amid supply concerns linked to the Middle East conflict.

Under ILP, businesses with their own power generators are asked to use their own sources to reduce demand on the grid. Participants are compensated for actual variable charges, such as fuel costs.

Meralco said 105 companies are enrolled in ILP as of February, providing a total de-loading capacity of around 513 megawatts.

Since its launch in 2004, the program has helped protect as many as 3 million households from rotating outages.

“We continue to encourage enrollment because the program becomes more effective the more we have customers that can participate. For the benefit of the participants, the frequency of de-loading may be reduced if we can call on more customers,” Meralco Generation and Transmission Economics Lead Specialist Ma. Leticia Sapina said.

“Within the ILP participant pool, we can also rotate who will be called to de-load,” she added. (Joann Santiago-Villanueva/PNA)