Meralco to launch upgraded distribution system next month

MANILA, Philippines - Power distributor Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will roll out in September its P382.86 million upgraded distribution system as part of efforts to modernize and automate its grid.

“This system will provide a great level of visibility of our network and will allow us, among other things, to minimize the impact of outages through rerouting power,” Meralco president and chief executive officer Oscar Reyes announced during the Meralco Technology and Innovation Summit 2016.

The P382.86-million project, which was approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in July 2014, will replace the obsolete Operating Trouble Management System (OTMS).

The ADMs will integrate the function of an outage management system and distribution management system, thereby improving Meralco’s outage management process and service restoration and making the distribution system more efficient.

Reyes also said Meralco recently demonstrated to the ERC its Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) aimed to support its prepaid retail electric service.

These projects form part Meralco’s Smart Grid journey to 2027, which lays down plans for technology innovations to improve operations and services.

“The evolution of our Smart Grid is a necessity to maintain a highly reliable network and respond to the coming challenges that distributed generation such as wind, solar or battery storage will have on our grid operations,” Reyes said.

Reyes also said the company is investing heavily in building new platforms “for our customers to interact digitally with Meralco and for us to offer an enhanced level of customer service and experience.”

In the same event, Meralco senior vice president Alfredo Panlilio identified four key journeys that the company wants to digitally enable.

These include “I-Join” where customers will be able to start and track their application online; “I-Pay” where Meralco makes payment easier through electronic bill presentment and payment including new, online payment channels; “I-ask,” where customers will have access to a self-service knowledge database or be able to chat directly with a live agent through their mobile device; and “I-need Repair,” which will allow Meralco to inform customers via sms, e-mail or push message if there is an outage and provide details on the restoration.

“We will ensure that we are able to meet our changing customer needs by opening new digital channels, providing more information and insights and offering more innovative products and services,” Panlilio said.