Bohol Light has advised customers to conserve electricity as generation costs rise following yellow alerts issued for the Visayas power grid.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) issued the yellow alerts in August, warning of potential power supply shortages in the Visayas region that could affect generation costs, BLCI said.
Yellow alerts are declared when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirements.
The alerts stem primarily from scheduled annual preventive maintenance at power plants, which has reduced available power supply and driven up electricity prices in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), according to Bohol Light’s statement to customers.
“As a distribution utility, Bohol Light wishes to inform consumers to be responsible in using electricity as the cost changes,” the company said in its advisory.
The distribution company noted that generation charges are “pass-through costs” under Republic Act 9136, known as the Electric Power Industry Reform Act.
This means power generators’ costs are directly passed to consumers without markup by distributors, BLCI said.
“The cost of power charged by electricity generators is not controlled by power distributors such as Bohol Light,” the company said.
Bohol Light noted that generation costs cannot be estimated in advance due to the unpredictable nature of market trading in the wholesale electricity spot market.
The company serves customers in Tagbilaran and operates as a regulated distribution utility under the Philippines’ restructured electricity market.