FULL POWER AHEAD: MORE Power substation to boost growth in business park

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

 

The full operation of the 10-megavolt ampere (MVA) mobile power substation of MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) at Megaworld’s Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao, Iloilo City will further boost developments in the area.

This, as the P50-million facility was fully energized Sunday morning two weeks after it was officially switched on.

MORE Power, Iloilo City’s power distributor, acquired the substation as part of its modernization and rehabilitation of the city’s distribution grid.

The substation aims to decongest the existing Mandurriao substation which is operating at full capacity because of the major developments in the district like the Iloilo Business Park.

“At exactly 10 am today (Dec 6, 2020), we fully energized the 10MVA mobile substation at Iloilo Business Park in Megaworld. This will increase the capacity of one of the fastest-growing areas in Iloilo City. It will also decongest the overloaded Mandurriao Substation whose usage has gone beyond safe levels,” MORE Power said in a statement.

A substation is a high-voltage electric system facility. It is used to switch generators, equipment, and circuits or lines in and out of a system. It also is used to change AC voltages from one level to another, and/or change alternating current to direct current or direct current to alternating current.

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas lauded MORE Power for upgrading the city’s distribution system despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Treñas said the full energization of the substation bodes well for the city as businesses, especially business processes outsourcing, continue to invest.

“I congratulate MORE Power for continuing their development programs despite the pandemic. We continue to look forward to the investments that continue to come to the city which provides employment to our Ilonggos,” the mayor said in a statement.

Treñas also urged the public to be more patient with ongoing and future improvements on the grid.

“We are grateful for MORE Power’s dedication to provide the best quality of service for the Ilonggos. Let us continue to be more understanding, and soon, Iloilo City will have the best supply of electricity for all.”

Roland Tiongson, first vice president, Megaworld Premier Offices, said the installation and energization of the substation is in synch with the developer’s efforts to bring in more investments to Iloilo City such as residential, leisure, and office buildings.

“This is a major welcome development to ensure the stability in the power supply of Iloilo Business Park. As we open more BPO companies in the township, we expect a continuing surge in the demand for 24/7 power for our office towers aside from the current requirements of the mall, hotels, and residential condominiums,” Tiongson said.

During the ceremonial switch-on of the substation on Nov 20, Enrique K. Razon Jr., Chairman & President of Prime Strategic Holdings, Inc., the major stakeholder in MORE Power, said the mobile substation is “not only a behemoth power-provider on wheels, it is also the answer to the ever-present danger of overloading of the Mandurriao substation.”

“The new mobile 10MVA substation will increase the capacity of the Megaworld area, one of Iloilo’s fastest-growing areas, by 6-8 megawatts. Moreover, it will decongest one of the five substations whose usage has gone beyond safe levels. As a result, the Mandurriao substation should have less outages,” he said.

Scoring the “decrepit and antiquated” distribution grid of Iloilo City, Razon vowed the MORE franchise will modernize the system to give Iloilo City a world-class electrical network.

“Decades of neglect and mismanagement have led to this, but we will give Iloilo City a stable, safe, reliable, and economical power supply,” he said.

MORE Power President and COO Roel Z. Castro said the mobile substation will ease the load of the Mandurriao substation

“This 10MVA moveable substation will not only provide the Megaworld with a larger capacity to service its power needs, it will also give ‘breathing space’ to the Mandurriao substation and, to some extent, the Molo substation,” Castro said.

MORE Power has been trying to prevent overloading of its substations due to higher demand amid the pandemic.

The power distributor warned that Mandurriao substation is working at critical levels having breached 90% of its capacity.

With the mobile substation, the Mandurriao substation is expected to perform at a safer 70% level.

In the next five years, MORE Power is embarking on a “stream of capacity expansion” that will see the addition of a 30MVA mobile substation, a new 50MVA 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.