Amid soar in weather temperatures, demand for electricity in the country had reached its boiling point this week, as the highest demand of 14,016 megawatts on Wednesday (April 24) breached the peak demand projection of the Department of Energy (DOE) for this year.

And while the country’s power supply wobbles relentlessly with the strike of sweltering heat, Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said in jest that he is “willing to do a rain dance,” but what had been offered as a-rib tickler may no longer end up amusing even to the parched Earth – and most especially to the disappointed Filipino consumers who are threatened with rotational brownout predicaments on a daily basis, then would still be assaulted eventually with skyrocketing electric bills.

It could be gleaned that the energy department’s peak demand forecast for the year had been pegged at 13,917MW – hence, radical spike in electricity consumption already smashed projections by a margin of roughly 100MW.

According to DOE Assistant Secretary Mario Marasigan, there had been unprecedented rise in temperatures, or what had been labeled as 1.5 degrees anomaly within this El Niño stricken stretch, hence that prompted further escalation on electricity demand.

“We have already breached our projected demand at 13, 917MW wherein we already reached the 14,000MW peak level,” he stressed.

The energy official further cautioned consumers that on the projections of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) “we could expect that this persistent high temperature will extend up to the second week of May or even until the end of May.”

The DOE is also forthright in sounding off what would terrorize consumers’ pockets once they would finally receive their bills in the months ahead.

Lotilla, in particular, noted that “the heat index has remained extremely high in most areas of the country and this has resulted in increasing demand for electricity -- and the higher demand in turn has been putting pressure on the prices of electricity in the spot market.”

He explained that “the more expensive oil-based - particularly diesel power plants - have been dispatched and they have been helpful, but of course, they have an impact on the price.”

In a related development, the Energy Regulatory Commission announced that it has ‘called on’ six generation companies (GenCos) “to provide more information on the recent outages of their power plants.”

The regulatory body emphasized that on its ongoing probe of the red and yellow alert incidents across grids, its preliminary findings will likely be known by the first week of May.

The ERC expounded that its summon on the six GenCos will “determine whether show cause orders (SCOs) need to be issued to the relevant stakeholders, in view of possible violations of outage allowances.”

ERC Chairperson Monalisa C. Dimalanta stated “the Commission is diligently studying additional measures we can put in place under this extraordinary increase in demand, as a result of the effects of El Niño, and unavailability of supply or reserves.”

“While we are completing our investigation on the outages, we are not losing sight of the fact that consumers - households and businesses alike - will bear the brunt of unavailable supply and/or high WESM (Wholesale Electricity Spot Market) prices,” the ERC chief asserted.

Nevertheless, it is very apparent that the ERC has ‘very soft’ approach when it comes to the GenCos, but it could always apply heavy-handed regulation to the less-favored players in the power industry.