Aboitiz power utility in Davao sees bright prospects in 5 years

MANILA, Philippines — Davao Light and Power Co., a unit of Aboitiz Power Corp., sees bright prospects in its franchise area in the next three to five years as businesses continue to expand in the region.

Davao Light has projected its peak demand to grow from 421 megawatts (MW) in 2018 to 546 MW by 2023.

It attributed the demand growth to the expansion of real estate businesses, huge universities, commercial complexes, and business process outsourcing offices.

“We expect to serve more customers from these industries this year, especially in light of the government’s Build Build Build program. The construction boom in the city is a win-win for all sectors,” Davao Light president and chief operating officer Rodger Velasco said.

Among the big customers coming in between 2019 and 2021 are several residential buildings, a hotel, a business park, a multipurpose indoor arena, a factory, and schools.

This year, Davao Light’s franchise area will welcome two manufacturers, a mall, a food complex, a business park, and real estate development.

Meanwhile, the utility firm also sees an increase in annual megawatt-hour (MWh) sales from 2.47 million MWh in 2018 to 3.14 MWh in five years.

By 2023, Davao Light also estimates to grow its customer base to 504,911 customers from 404,574 last year.

To keep up with the development within the respective franchise areas of its utilities, AboitizPower is spending P3.1 billion this year to modernize its existing distribution assets across the country in the next few years.

“We want to take advantage of the robust economic growth in our franchise areas by making sure power is delivered to our customers reliably, sustainably, and at the most cost-effective way. The initiatives we have mapped out for this year and beyond are part of our effort to become world-class and the best at what we do,” said Jaime Jose Aboitiz, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the AboitizPower Distribution Group.

Part of this modernization program is the construction of facilities in Davao Light’s franchise area that will add 424 MVA in transformation capacity, further improving network efficiency and reliability.

The Davao-based utility is also set to string a total of 228 circuit kilometers of combined sub-transmission and backbone distribution lines to reinforce the existing system.

To help improve its efficiency, Davao Light will also implement distribution automation and its advanced distribution management system.

Davao Light is the third largest privately owned electric utility in the country. It holds the franchise for distributing electric power to Davao City as well as Panabo City and the municipalities of Carmen, Dujali, and Sto. Tomas in Davao del Norte.

AboitizPower is currently one of the largest electricity distributors in the Philippines with ownership interests in seven distribution utilities including the second and third largest in the country.

The distribution subsidiaries of AboitizPower include Visayan Electric Co. in Cebu and Cotabato Light and Power Co. in Cotabato, among others.