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MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) is urging self-generating industries
to source their electricity from the grid and its residential
customers to avail of its time-of-use (TOU) rates to help reduce the
cost of power in the country.
Jesus Fransisco, Meralco president and chief
operating officer, said that bringing back self-generating
businesses into the grid would lessen the cost of electricity in the
country as this would help power generators balance their load.
“We’re encouraging those self-generating to
go back to the grid. In the 1970’s, our industrial users are
around 38 percent. Now we’ve dropped to 29 percent. It is a loss
of off-peak demand,” he said.
Power generators and utilities are pining for an
increase in off-peak demand, or electricity use during hours of the
day when demand is low, so as to spread the operations of
expensive-running power plants.
Because of low off-peak demand in the country,
these plants are relegated mostly to running during hours when
demand for electricity is high, causing power rates to spike.
The Meralco official said that the country’s
largest distribution utility started to lose its industrial
customers in the 90’s when brownouts became a common fixture in
the country because of the lack of power supply. Big businesses then
resorted to buying generators to sustain their operations.
However, with prices of oil and coal recently on
the upswing, “grid rates now are much attractive than self
generation,” Francisco said.
A number of companies have already expressed
interest in sourcing their electricity from the grid, including the
country’s biggest ceramic tile manufacturer Mariwasa, Inc., he
said.
Besides large businesses, Fransisco urged
Meralco’s residential customers consuming at least 1,000 kilowatts
of electricity per month to avail of its TOU rates to jack up
off-peak demand.
Under this scheme, customers’ electricity
rates during hours when demand is low are lower.
Although consumers can lower their electricity
bills by simply shifting their electricity use through Meralco’s
TOU rates, Francisco said that only a handful—at around 1,000
households—have availed of the scheme.
He said Meralco’s customers qualified for its
TOU rates should consider the scheme as the meter for this is free
of charge. Also, the first few weeks under the scheme will not be
charged so as to help its customers see how it would affect their
bills.
-- Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo
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