ILOILO City – By February 2025, the power distribution system here would have been fully modernized, declared MORE Electric and Power Corporation (MORE Power), the metro’s sole power distributor.
“After we complete the five-year modernization plan, residents can expect a robust distribution system with maximum tolerance to causes of unintended outages, capable of handling bigger demand from consumers and industries,” said MORE Power president and chief executive officer Roel Castro.
The company made the pledge two and a half years ago when it took over the franchise area of Iloilo City.
Its modernization and development plan covers all of the city’s 180 barangays and aims to increase energy efficiency, minimize power losses and improve distribution system reliability.
“We ask for the understanding, patience and support of our consumers as we continue to implement all the rehabilitation works that we have lined up,” said Castro.
Among the other deliverables that it has already fulfilled is the acquisition of a mobile substation (with another one coming very soon), plus the soon-to-be-completed Megaworld substation.
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, which 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.
Too, 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.
Likewise, the power utility legitimized consumers who have become dependent on illegal connection because of the difficulty to generate the requirements needed to have a power connection from the previous provider.
It simplified the application requirements and brought staff to the community to assist consumers who are unable to go to the office to process application.
Despite the fact that there was no turnover of any records, data, or operations history by the former distribution utility upon takeover of MORE Power on Feb. 29, 2020, the company was still able to increase the number of active customers from a base of about 62,000 consumers in 2020 to 89,450 active consumers as of September 2022.
Above all these, MORE Power continues to proactively manage consumers’ issues and concerns; actively pursues private sector participation and corporate social responsibility initiatives; optimizes media utilization for information dissemination and public awareness; observes strict compliance to regulation policies and laws; and participates in social, environmental protection, livelihood and disaster relief programs.
“Ilonggos deserve the best from us. Nothing more, nothing less,” stressed Castro./PN
