MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) is looking at Isla Verde, an island in Batangas province within its franchise area, as a possible location for its first microgrid system, its president said.
“We are working with the local government to energize [the island], to meet their requirements,” Meralco President and Chief Executive Officer Oscar S. Reyes told reporters.
Should the project push through, it would be Meralco’s first venture into that system.
Apart from Isla Verde, Mr. Reyes said Meralco continues to look for possible areas to build a microgrid, a small-scale electricity grid that can be operated independently from the country’s interconnected network of power transmission facilities.
“Siguro (Maybe) that will be something that we’ll pay attention to in 2019,” Mr. Reyes said.
“They’re really more for, I think, bringing power to those who have no electricity. This is not highly commercially profitable but I think it’s part of our mandate to bring electricity to unelectrified communities. We’re doing that with schools,” he added.
Mr. Lopez declined to classify the company’s electrification of Cagbalete, an island in Quezon province within its franchise, as a microgrid.
In May, Mr. Reyes told shareholders that the company had identified microgrids as a prospective new business for Meralco, which has a 25-year franchise valid through June 28, 2028 to construct, operate and maintain an electric distribution system.
Meralco serves the cities and municipalities of Bulacan, Cavite, Metro Manila and Rizal, and certain cities, municipalities and barangays in the provinces of Batangas, Laguna, Pampanga and Quezon.
Asked where the planned microgrid would be built, Mr. Reyes said back then: “Outside the franchise area.”
The announcement had raised concern among some electric cooperatives who fear the power distribution utility’s encroachment on their respective franchise areas.
Isla Verde was in the spotlight after the Department of Energy (DoE) in April asked Meralco why the island under its franchise area remains without power to this date.
The DoE had said that it was reviewing identified areas for possible operation of third-party electricity providers and the island, located along the Isla Verde passage on the way to Mindoro island, was among them.
Under existing rules, a distribution utility has to waive its right to provide electricity in an area within its franchise before a third-party power provider can come in. The DoE said it might be forced to forego the required waiver depending on Meralco’s response.
Meralco’s controlling stakeholder, Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc., is partly owned by PLDT, Inc. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Victor V. Saulon
