Meralco approaches its 100-percent electrification by June target

Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) approaches its 100-percent electrification by June target after energizing nearly its entire franchise area through the Meralco Electrification Program.

Ray Espinosa, Meralco president and chief executive officer, said during the listed firm’s annual stockholders’ meeting that the power company has energized 99.94% of its franchise area, up from the 99.59% rate in 2019.

In 2020, Meralco installed 208 kilometers of distribution lines on 5,151 poles and 436 distribution transformers with a total capacity of 15,015-kilovolt amperes. As a result, a total of 261 sites were energized in the past year, benefiting approximately 11,354 households. For the remainder of 2021, Meralco is aiming to energize another 240 sites with 9,004 households to reach its target.

Part of its electrification project is to bring power to Cagbalete Island through the construction of an additional 1.4 megawatts of direct current solar photovoltaic (PV) with 2.4 megawatt-hours battery storage, or enough to power the entire island of over 600 households and 11 resorts.

Currently, the listed firm has a 60-kilowatts peak (kWp) solar PV system and a 150-kilowatt hour (kWh) battery energy storage system in Cagbalete Island, Quezon province. It is also operating a 32-kilowatt (kW) solar panel microgrid and 192-kWh battery storage facility in Isla Verde in Batangas City.

Meralco is the largest private-sector electric distribution utility in the Philippines with a franchise area of 9,685 square kilometers that covers 36 cities and 75 municipalities

Espinosa also noted an increase in the popularity of solar panels for houses and commercial establishments.

“From a network standpoint, we are mindful of the effect of solar PVs in our network and we are making appropriate measures to make our distribution network compatible with the influx of solar panels into our network.

We are investing in more studies to determine what could be the appropriate technology we need to invest in to strengthen our grid as well as to make us deal with intermittent energy sources, not just from solar panels but even from the utility-scale renewable energy that we are sourcing,” he said.

Meralco shares went up by ₱1.60, or 0.59% to close at ₱274 apiece on Tuesday.

SOURCE: The Manila Times