By Ashley Erika O. Jose, Reporter
VICTOR S. GENUINO, president and chief executive officer of ePLDT, Inc., aspires to position the Philippines as a leading hub in the data center market.
“I would love for the Philippines to be known as the hyperscaler hub of Asia Pacific,” Mr. Genuino said in an interview with BusinessWorld.
“I think the Philippines is in a very unique geographical position to be able to be one,” he added.
Before his stint as the president and CEO of ePLDT, the information and communications technology arm of listed PLDT Inc., Mr. Genuino served as the head of customer retail services and corporate communications at Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) for 10 years.
During his time at Meralco, Mr. Genuino was also tasked with overseeing the power company’s two subsidiaries: Meralco Energy, Inc. (MSERV) and MSpectrum, Inc., the solar unit.
“Obviously, a lot of discussions and developments around energy and how we could help customers be more efficient in the way they manage and utilize energy. It was also very critical at that time for my role to ensure that the power requirements of our customers were prepared beforehand,” he said.
His previous roles in the energy sector have proven beneficial considering that power is the lifeblood of the data center business, Mr. Genuino said.
“Our Vitro Sta. Rosa is a 50-megawatt site. So, if you look at power consumption, that is the equivalent of maybe five Mall of Asia combined, in terms of power consumption,” he added.
The biggest cost component of the data center business is power costs, Mr. Genuino said, adding that it is important for companies focusing on the data center business to adopt sustainable measures due to data centers’ high power consumption.
“We have to ensure that the data center has adequate power. We have to make sure that the data center has reliable and affordable power… and energy moving forward has to be sustainable,” Mr. Genuino said.
With this, ePLDT is sourcing its power requirements from renewable and sustainable sources of energy to meet its energy needs while also offsetting high power costs, he said.
For instance, all of its running data centers are operating at about 20% sustainable power, while its largest data center, Vitro Sta. Rosa, is powered by a 35% sustainable source of energy.
In July, the company completed the structure of its 50-MW hyperscale Vitro Sta. Rosa, its 11th and largest data center to date.
The structural completion of Vitro Sta. Rosa will pave the way for power integration and energization, ePLDT said.
“We have been running the data centers throughout this time. Since then, we have managed to build a portfolio of 10 data centers. We have an extensive footprint of data centers,” he said.
He also said that there has been a growing interest in establishing data centers among companies, especially with the rise of technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud service providers.
“I think we have a very good market share position, a dominant share position with regard to data centers and colocation space. With the recent trend of establishing data centers due to the advent of cloud technology, many are interested. The industry is actually turning into a very interesting and competitive landscape,” Mr. Genuino said.
The country can also benefit from the growing interest in the data center space, he said, adding that it would also boost the country’s digital economy.
“I think the key is to be able to attract what we call hyperscalers, cloud service providers. If we are able to attract them to relocate, establish, and build a presence in the Philippines, it will boost the digital economy,” he added.
The country is considered an ideal hub for data centers because of its location in Southeast Asia; however, the country’s high power costs may deter investors, considering that the Philippines’ neighboring countries subsidize power costs, he said.
“Still, I am very bullish on the data center space. I think hyperscalers are really looking at the Philippines to be able to come in and invest,” Mr. Genuino said.
Earlier, the company said that its planned 12th data center may double the capacity of Vitro Sta. Rosa while it is still in the site selection process for its 13th and 14th data centers.
For its 12th data center, the company said it will be located somewhere in South Luzon due to the availability of connectivity and energy redundancy; while it is on a constant lookout for its 13th and 14th data centers.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of the PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls.
