CEBU CITY – The Visayan Electric Company (VECO), the country’s second biggest power distribution utility firm, is urging Cebu-based hotel chains generating at least one-megawatt (MW) of power to de-load from the company especially when power supply becomes critical.

Through VECO’s Interruptible Load Agreement (ILP), local and international hotels operating in Cebu are now encouraged to participate in order to help mitigate the subsequent power outages in the province due to the zero power reserve capacity in the Cebu-Negros-Panay (CNP) grid.

“We are calling on hotels, this time, to self-generate so we can minimize further power interruptions in our franchise area,” said VECO Vice President for Administration, Ricardo Lacson.

Lacson estimated that eight hotels de-loading one-MW from VECO each would easily contribute 8-MW to the CNP grid, which is the biggest source of energy in the Visayas region.

Under the ILP, all stakeholders agreed to deload from VECO and other distribution utilities when the need arises. The deloading last March 31 was the first time the power company implemented the agreement after the contract signing last January.

The contract stipulates that the customer will be paid compensation for full or partial deloading when it deloads from VECO as requested.

Among the private stakeholders signing an agreement with VECO early this year include mall giants SM and Ayala Center Cebu, San Miguel Corp., and E-mall.

“The energy saved could be distributed to parts of the city where there are shortages,” Raul Lucero, VECO Vice President for Engineering said.” These establishments that use huge amount of energy are asked to generate their own power in times of shortages.”

During a forum that tackled the looming power crisis in Cebu, Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino General Manager Marco Protacio said the hotel had already responded to VECO’s request to deload power last month. This, after power generation plants experienced technical problems causing one-hour power shortages in Cebu City.

Likewise, Lacson repeatedly called on the general public to conserve energy.

“Always be efficient and judicious (with energy),” he stressed. “Power is a valuable resource.”

Considering that the holiday season is fast approaching, Lacson underlined that the use of Christmas lights should be minimized and used only when needed.

VECO is also actively advocating for the use of compact flourescent lights (CFL) bulbs among household consumers.

VECO Corporate Communications Manager Ethel Natera earlier said the power company’s close to 300,000 household consumers are still utilizing old incandescent bulbs that consume more power t he CFL bulbs, The latter, on the other hand, can last up to five times longer and saves up to 80 percent in power consumption.