More power rolls out upgrades for Iloilo power distribution network

MANILA, Philippines — More Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) has started rolling out upgrades in Iloilo City’s power distribution network, bringing down system losses and addressing jumpers as part of its P1.8-billion capital expenditure in the next three years.

In a statement, MORE Power said it has upgraded 51 distribution transformers, replaced 51 broken electric poles and fixed 97 hotspot connectors in a span of only two months as part of a total upgrading program of the city’s aged and dilapidated electricity distribution system.

MORE Power president and COO Ruel Castro said the utility is spending P1.8 billion to rehabilitate and upgrade Iloilo City’s power distribution system in the next three years as part of its program to improve electricity supply, lower the monthly bill paid by Ilonggos and improve its capacity to handle bigger demand from consumers and industries in the coming years.

Aside from improving the distribution system through upgrades, MORE Power also took steps to lower the monthly bills of Ilonggos by cutting down systems losses which reached 9.03 percent in 2019, as regular customers pay 6.5 percent of such losses.

Castro said technical experts have advised MORE Power that a high systems loss of 9.03 percent could mean there are 20,000 illegal connections in Iloilo City that remain untraced.

The new utility inherited all of the distribution facilities of Panay Electric Co. (PECO) after it took over the distribution system as the new congressional franchise owner.

Castro said a technical study of the distribution system that MORE Power asked PECO’s sister company MIESCOR, it needs to conduct immediate preventive maintenance work or upgrade almost all of the city’s distribution equipment, many of which remain manually operated because they were installed or put up during the 1950s and 1960s.

MIESCOR’s findings showed 9,000 hotspot connectors need to be upgraded or replaced so they would not cause system-wide damage. Four of the five power substations were found to carry over 90 percent load, a dangerous level that could cause damage to the distribution lines and safety switches as the safe level allowed is between 70 to 80 percent load capacity.

“If we will not do anything to fix these substations … one day one of these substations will fail and may cause a bigger problem (than the power supply outage applied during maintenance works),” Castro said.