Bulacan village gets microgrid project
By Jordeene B. Lagare – May 2, 2020
from The Manila Times
Power end-users in a village in Bulacan province were given an option to avail themselves of electricity based on annual consumption through OneSunASIA’s microgrid project.
In a statement, the renewable energy company said 546 households in Muzon village in Bulacan’s San Jose del Monte City were provided a credit facility during the quarantine period to ensure continued power supply in their homes.
Under the credit load program, customers were allocated individual credit equal to their respective annual peak load or higher electricity demand incurred over a specific period.
This was implemented on March 21 in conjunction with the Manila Electric Co.’s deferred payment scheme, in which the March billing and the corresponding collection were withheld for 30 days.
However, OneSunAsia said only 50 percent or 275 households availed themselves of the credit facility, while the other 50 percent opted to continue purchasing load in smaller denominations.
Moreover, 63 percent of the borrowers consumed more than 50 kilowatts per hour (kWh), while the remaining 37 percent were risk-averse.
“OneSunAsia has been operating the microgrid facility for almost two years now. There is reason to believe that the residents’ consumption behavior is largely attributed to the operating system which they have become accustomed to,” said Andrea Capellan, operations manager of the Alpas electrification program.
“The digital meters scattered in 26 buildings, and the prepaid load system that interphased with the metering infrastructure empowered residents to take control of their consumption and buying behavior,” she added.
OneSunASIA’s microgrid project in the Alpas housing project allows consumers to monitor their load balance anytime, helping them to manage their power demand. Electricity bills are settled through the firm’s on-site electricity payment platform.
“The biggest advantage of the microgrid system is in the accurate recording of transaction. It enabled us to plan the subsequent allocation for the extended quarantine and minimize possible exposure to bigger debt payment,” Capellan explained.
OneSunASIA continues to be confronted with a relatively high tariff structure due to the capital expense recovery mechanism of the metering technology.
“OneSunASIA believes that funders will find this platform useful and consider the experiment to be valuable. There are practical applications which may useful in devising ways to adjust in the new normal scenario both for business and regulators,” Capellan said.
