Century-old insurer's energy reforms pave way to financial wellness
MANILA, Philippines — In life, preparing for the future is vital. The vision for tomorrow is fundamentally built on what is accomplished today. With this in mind since 1910, Insular Life Assurance Co. Ltd. (Insular Life) has been a steady presence in helping Filipinos achieve a brighter and financially stable future.
When Insular Life’s corporate headquarters realized that 6.2 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity — enough to power 25,000 homes for one year — was consumed in 2015, the management knew that many changes had to be done. And since 60 percent of the power cost was spent on air conditioning, the company started initiating reforms by changing and updating its cooling systems to lower electricity consumption.
Lowering cost through efficiency
With technical advice and simulations from Meralco and energy-solutions subsidiary MSERV, the century-old insurer was convinced to be one of the first to install a variable-flow chilled water system into the building’s air-cooling setup. Oil-lubricated chillers were replaced with magnetic oil-free chillers, on top of a digital chiller management system.
Hector Caunan, head of Real Property Division and first vice president of Insular Life, shared the positive outcome of these changes. “We studied and looked for ways to reduce our electricity consumption and maintenance cost of our equipment. Currently, MSERV is handling our chiller management system at the Insular Life Corporate Center (ILCC) building in Alabang. They retrofitted our old chiller system with new energy-saving technologies. And the savings were astounding. Insular Life was able to save P24 million in 2016 and P26 million in 2017, resulting in faster return-on-investment in the ILCC in three to five years instead of five,” he said.
Insular Life also revealed that further reforms would continue. “For future projects, MSERV will be upgrading our building management system in Alabang because we wanted to have an efficient, accurate monitoring of mechanical, electrical and electro-mechanical equipment,” he concluded.
Tailor-fit energy solutions and services
Meralco always strives to understand and address the varied energy requirements of its customers. Its century of experience in the energy industry gave it its unique position to provide corporate customers with end-to-end energy solutions that can enhance a company’s competitiveness.
Meralco’s Power Ideas program was designed to help its corporate customers achieve operational efficiency by offering four key energy solutions on Power Quality, Energy efficiency, Energy Supply, and Innovations.
To learn more about Power Ideas, visit http://corporatepartners.meralco.com.ph/powerideas, e-mail [email protected] or call the business hotline at (02) 16210.
