MORE Power’s first major investment into Iloilo
MORE Electric and Power Corp. has embarked on its first major investment critical to the modernisation of its distribution system.
Image for illustration purposes
Philippines, Iloilo: MORE Electric and Power Corp. has embarked on its first major investment critical to the modernisation of its distribution system.
This, as the company recently energised a 10 MVA mobile substation over the weekend at Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao District.
“The 10MVA mobile substation is not only a behemoth power-provider on wheels, but also the answer to the ever-present danger of overloading of the Mandurriao substation,” said Enrique Razon, Jr., chairman and president of Prime Strategic Holdings, Inc. Prime Strategic is a major shareholder of MORE Power.
In recent months, despite having completed the comprehensive preventive maintenance on all its five substations, MORE Power said it has had to deal with trying to prevent the overloading of its substations. It had warned of the Mandurriao substation working at critical levels reaching up to 90 to 95 %. With the mobile substation, the Mandurriao substation is expected to perform at a safer 70% capacity, according to MORE Power.
“The mobile substation will increase the capacity of the Megaworld area–one of Iloilo’s fastest-growing areas–by 6-8 MW. Moreover, it will decongest the Mandurriao substation, whose usage has gone beyond safe levels, and will result in fewer outages,” Razon said, adding that the powering on of the mobile substation is the utility’s first major step towards doubling Iloilo City’s power capacity within the next five years.
“This, indeed, is a considerable investment on the part of MORE Power, but it is an investment needed to enable the utility to adapt to new challenges and maintain its system resiliency and reliability,” he said.
Razon also disclosed that MORE Power will allocate around $41.5 M (₱2 B) as emergency capital budget to further upgrade the distribution system in the city.
“Within the next five years MORE Power will be embarking on a ‘stream of capacity expansion’ that will see the addition of a 30 MVA mobile substation, a new 50 MVA substation at another end of Iloilo Business Park, and new substations in Arevalo District and Diversion area as well as the expansion of the City Proper and Jaro substations,” he said.
Source: GMA Network