THE OTHER day at the watering hole of a plush hotel in “I Am Iloilo City”, over a bottle of chilled Chablis and delectable hors d’oerurves, I had a lovely conversation with Nong Moroy.
The conversation started interestingly enough with Lionel Messi’s Argentina deserving as winners of FIFA’s World Cup 2022. As expected it drifted into something closer to home – MORE Power, three years after as Iloilo City’s power distribution utility.
MORE Power has bragging rights as the only power distribution utility that gave Iloilo City residents the lowest rate in the country at P6.45/kWh (this lasted for 14 months and would have probably gone on until it was overtaken by geopolitics and the volatile price of coal in the open market).
It then went on to the ongoing rehabilitation, upgrading and investments of the aging distribution system which was left in dilapidated state by the previous power distribution utility.
One of MORE Power’s most notable achievements is the establishment of the 69-kilovolt transmission station in Barangay Banuyao, La Paz district which reconnected Iloilo City to the Visayas power grid managed by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).
This project did not only improve the reliability of the system but also helped Iloilo City consumers struggling at the height of the coronavirus pandemic; they were able to enjoy a lower power rate as this allowed MORE Power 100 percent access to the grid, resulting to flexibility in choosing power suppliers.
In addition, MORE Power was able to complete several uprating projects for its primary and secondary lines; installed and replaced 1,518 primary and 1,240 secondary poles and 701 distribution transformers; replaced over 30,000 old kWh-meters, and installed more than 40 elevated meter centers.
To further increase reliability of the distribution system, 42 units Automatic Circuit Reclosers (ACR), 12 units Load Break Switches (LBS), pole skirts, and silicone rubber insulators were also installed.
As a result, substantial improvement in both the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) and the System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI) are now significantly felt.
SAIDI measures how long, on average, each customer was without power each year. A 47% improvement since 2020 was achieved, with a target of 61% by 2025 or an equivalent of 28 minutes compared to the international benchmark of 75 minutes.
For SAIFI, which indicates how often the average customer experiences sustained interruption during a predefined period of time, MORE Power was able to reduce it by 50 percent since 2020 or from 1.79 to 0.89 in 2022, with a target of 81 percent or 0.33 by 2025.
MORE Power was able to drastically reduce the system loss from 29.72 percent in April 2020 to 7.5 percent in October 2022 with its vigilant campaign on anti-pilferage apprehending violators regardless of position, affiliation or social status.
Going back to the power distribution thingy, in addition to the first 10MVA mobile substation installed in 2020 which powered the Iloilo Business Park, MORE Power’s newest 30MVA Mobile Substation from AKTIF provides much needed electric supply to the overloaded system.
And just arrived from Turkey (AKTIF) the first compact stand alone 30/36 MVA mobile substation in the country, what makes this mobile substation unique is the state-of-the-art PASS MOO system wherein all components fit in one package; 69kv equipment-power circuit breaker, current transformers, potential transformers, disconnect switches and control elements.
It’s so compact that all these state-of-the-art equipment can fit in just two trailers with no need for additional construction because of the compact gas-insulated switchgear from Siemens (Germany) which will be used for five 13.2kV feeders.
Upon arrival it went straight to Molo Substation where it will be used as a temporary substation for at least a year while rehabilitation of old substations in the city is ongoing.
According to MORE Power this 2023 the distribution system will be 70% rehabilitated/upgraded and by February 2025 the entire power distribution facilities will be fully modernized.
And we finished the evening with Espresso shots. Well played indeed, Nong Moroy./PN
