FPH looking to build three microgrids for underserved communities in Camarines Sur

Federico R. Lopez, the chief executive of First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPH), announced on Thursday that the company is preparing microgrids for underserved communities, and disclosed that the first batch will be located in Camarines Sur.

“We just built three of them in CamSur and hope to commission them by next month, but they’re already up there and we want to run them very soon,” said Lopez at a forum hosted by the Makati Business Club.

“We’re setting up microgrids around the country in areas that are, what you call edge-of-grid, where the cooperatives that are serving them can barely serve these communities anymore,” he added.

These communities are said to only receive power for 8 to 10 hours a day. FPH hopes that these microgrids will allow them to have access to electricity for 24 hours to help support both their personal comfort and their livelihood.

Currently, half the kilowatt-hours of the said communities are powered by renewables while the other half by diesel.

“But over time, what we want to do is increase the number of kilowatt-hours that is being served by renewables and eventually phase out that diesel when it’s cheap enough,” said Lopez

The company noted, however, that this will not be part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives as the project is still being tested for its feasibility.

“We’re looking at the ability to do things like these that enable communities that need to be brought up the curve and to enable prosperity also… We’re looking at ways to do that profitably because if we can’t do it profitably, you can’t scale it and you can’t continue doing it,” said Lopez.

On Thursday, shares of FPH rose by 0.68% or 50 centavos and closed at ₱74.50 each. 

SOURCE: Business World