AND IT came to pass last week that one of the last remaining vestiges of erstwhile power provider of “I Am Iloilo City”, the defunct Panay Electric Company (PECO), was finally replaced. As our title says, out with the old and in with the new.
It is but fitting and symbolic that this change for the better took place in the former main office of PECO on General Luna Street which now houses the City Proper substation of current “I Am Iloilo City” power distribution utility, MORE Electric and Power Corporation (MORE Power) a.k.a. Nong Moroy.
So what really happened that day? Here are excerpts from the March 21, 2022 issue of Panay News:
MORE Power replaces 30-year-old transformer with modern, bigger one
As parts of its modernization efforts, MORE Electric and Power Corporation (MORE Power) acquired a modern 33MVA power transformer equipped with on-load tap- changers (OLTCs).
This replaces the more than 30-year-old 20MVA transformer at the General Luna substation in the City Proper, which is one of distribution assets of the previous power utility which MORE Power possessed through a writ of possession during its takeover.
“This will replace the 20MVA ng City Proper. For one, it is already over aged. Second, 20MVA medyo kulang na, especially sa City Proper,” said Roel Castro, president and chief operations officer of MORE Power.
The new transformer costs around P50 million, made in South Korea and purchased by MORE Power through MERALCO.
According to Castro, the 33MVA transformer will be functional by next week once MIESCOR (Meralco Industrial Engineering Services Corporation), Meralco’s service provider in electro-mechanical works, engineering, distribution and technical services, is done preparing it.
Richard Ochava, president and chief operations officer of MIESCOR, said the 33MVA transformer addresses the regulation of the voltage without interruptions.
The new 33MVA power transformer was energized and online yesterday, March 27.
There you go. MORE Power replaced one of the many ageing, obsolete and dilapidated power distribution facilities/equipment hastily left behind by PECO when their franchise expired and was not renewed three years ago.
Since then and ongoing, MORE Power has been updating and replacing these power distribution facilities to be at par with state of the art power distribution utilities.
Indeed, MORE Power is living up to its promise of with “more power means more responsibilities” to its modernization program. When it took over as the power distribution utility from PECO in February 2020, there were more or less 63,000 household customers; in just two years the number has soared to 88,000.
Of course the most important and most felt fulfilled “campaign promise” of MORE Power was to bring down the cost of electricity which they did to just P6.40 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), the cheapest in the Philippines and 100% coming from sustainable sources, and the bragging rights are: it is not only cheapest electricity rate but also environment friendly and sustainable.
And to make it a bit clearer what is it that MORE Power has done, excerpts from a March 22, 2022 post on Facebook by Panay News:
MORE Electric and Power Corp (MORE Power) has dramatically improved its services, and has affected relatively lower electricity rates as its P1.9 billion modernization programs bore fruition since becoming Iloilo City’s sole power distributor two years ago.
The modernization is aimed towards addressing systems loss factors, illegal connections and power interruptions; reducing overloading; providing a cheaper and safer electricity supply to consumers; and delivery of notable of MORE Power’s achievements was definitely the lowering of electricity rates from the previous average of P13 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to the present average of P6.40 per kWh.
The lower rates were attributed to MORE Power’s option to purchase supply from the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) and the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).
MORE Power had to install a 69-kilovolt (69-kV) switching station to be able to link to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), which transmits the power purchased from PSALM and WESM.
MORE Power also installed the 10-megavolt ampere (10 MVA) substation at Iloilo Business Park, the township of Megaworld Corp. in Mandurriao district and had replaced 1,715 electric poles, 559 distribution transformers and 21,802 total electric meters.
MORE Power also installed animal guards, silicone rubber insulators, automatic circuit reclosers, and load break switches, as well as transferred electric meters and metering centers to avert power interruptions.
The MORE Power move resulted in a 93-percent decrease in interruption frequency. It also lowered system loss to just 6.98 percent in December 2021 after recording 23.31 percent in May 2020.
I mentioned to Mr. Roel Castro, MORE Power president and CEO, that “the 20 MVA you’re replacing is probably as old as the heritage houses along General Luna St. to which he replied, ‘probably older.’”/PN
