ILOILO City – MORE Electric and Power Corporation (MORE Power) recently broke ground for its new 33 MVA City Proper Substation and Control Center. The goal is to ensure a more reliable and sufficient energy load and efficient distribution of electricity in this southern city.
Graced by MORE Power’s project contractor, HANSEI Corporation, and other partners including the Iloilo City Government, the activity on Aug. 16 also included a time capsule laying ceremony.
The new City Proper substation aims to address the outdated and dangerously outmoded equipment and replace them with new, modern and latest technology.
To note, the City Proper Substation is the oldest substation in operation, with equipment dating as far back as 1964. Its critical, high voltage equipment has not seen upgrades in decades and can no longer cope with the rapid economic development of Iloilo City, not to mention, the unperformed maintenance procedures in the past years before MORE Power took over.
Meanwhile, the new Control Center will bring in state-of-the-art hardware and software that can remotely control and operate the substation through a SCADA system.
This will also significantly improve response time to customers as well as the decision-making during fault events that cause power interruptions.
“When we came in from two and a half years ago, we realized the magnitude of work that we have to do,” said MORE Power president and chief executive officer Roel Z. Castro.
“All of you have been seeing the kind of rehabilitation we have been doing, and the effect of the rehabilitation. In terms of our interruptions, it has really been down over 90 percent. In terms of duration, it has been down by over 95 percent,” Castro added.
He also emphasized that this is the kind of service and commitment they have for the consumers of Iloilo.
“We are not holding back on plans to make Iloilo one of the most modern cities outside of Metro Manila. We, in MORE Power, together with our shareholders, are committed on those plans. We are bound to make it happen. MORE Power will really make sure that here in Iloilo we will have one of the best electric services in the country,” Castro assured the Ilonggos.
Rodolfo Nuyda of HANSEI Corporation, meanwhile, believes that this significant milestone for MORE Power will complement the economic growth and development of Iloilo City.
“With the kind support and cooperation of all stakeholders, we assure you that we will do our best efforts for the timely or early completion of this project,” Nuyda added.
On the other hand, Mayor Jerry P. Treñas’ executive assistant Francis Cruz, who represented the city mayor during the groundbreaking, lauded MORE Power for its substantial accomplishment to improve the power services here.
“That was only two years and a half ago and so many have been done and accomplished by MORE. We cannot thank them more for doing more,” Cruz said as he recalled how the city indulged in brownouts because back then, there were no upgrades.
He also noted that Iloilo City used to have one of the highest power costs in the country but with MORE Power, it has now the lowest power cost.
“This is a manifestation of true, deeply-rooted public and private partnership. With MORE providing lower power cost, reliable and stable power, it would be easy for us also to bring in investors,” Cruz pointed out.
He added that the city government looks forward to a stronger partnership with MORE Power in the next years to come.
Castro announced that he was so happy with the activity and expressed that the Company is dedicating and offering this project and everything that they are doing to Almighty God.
“All the 86,000 and counting consumers that we serve are our way of showing to our Lord that we really deliver the expected service from us, all for His greater glory,” Castro stressed./PN
