OF COURSE, we are talking about IGNITE Power, a joint venture company between Prime Electric Holdings Inc. and Manny Pacquiao’s MP Holdings Inc., and MORE Power — all belonging to the umbrella of Enrique Razon Jr.’s power portfolio.
Let’s start with IGNITE Power, the newest addition to the Razon power portfolio. This September, around 200,000 members of the South Cotabato II Electric Cooperative (SOCOTECO II) will vote on a proposed joint venture with IGNITE Power aimed at rehabilitating the utility’s aging distribution network.
The voting will be held over four weekends — Sept. 5-6, 12-13, 19-20 and 26-27. The joint venture requires the approval of a majority, or 50% plus one, of all qualified member-consumer-owners under Presidential Decree No. 269, as amended.
Once the joint venture pushes through, SOCOTECO II estimates it will need about P2 billion over the next five years to modernize its system serving General Santos City, Sarangani province and parts of South Cotabato.
Under the rehabilitation plan, the funding would be used to upgrade and add substations, replace aging distribution lines and equipment, expand network capacity, and deploy newer distribution and customer-service technologies.
If that rehabilitation plan sounds familiar, that’s because it is basically what happened in “I Am Iloilo City” some six years ago when MORE Power took over as its sole power distribution utility. Today, MORE Power is the epitome of what a power distribution utility should be.
Moving on, after six years, MORE Power has brought “I Am Iloilo City” into the 21st century and beyond in terms of power distribution, customer service and relations, and corporate social responsibility.
There is, however, one small thing that puts a damper on MORE Power and “I Am Iloilo City”: the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, or NGCP, controls the grid that brings power to all of MORE Power’s substations.
This means that if the power supply from NGCP is interrupted, MORE Power’s entire distribution network is also affected, resulting in the now-classic Manual Load Dropping.
Speaking of which, brownouts have hit the Visayas amid thin power supply. The Visayas grid has been alternating between red and yellow alerts this August as tight supply persists amid coal plant outages and limited imports from Mindanao.
These alert levels indicate thin operating reserves. NGCP said generating units unavailable as of posting included Units 1 and 2 of Therma Visayas Inc. (TVI), Unit 1 of Kepco SPC Power Corp. (KSPC), Unit 1 of Cebu Energy Development Corporation (CEDC), and the coal-fired Toledo Power Company (TPC).
The recent trippings have compounded long-term supply constraints, with more than 20 power plants remaining offline since 2021. NGCP also noted that 16 other power plants were on forced outage, resulting in a total capacity loss of about 1,062 MW.
According to the Department of Energy, measures are underway to stabilize the power supply in response to the tight situation, including tapping floating power barges operated by private generation companies to boost regional capacity.
Well and good. But perhaps the best solution to these constant power outages caused by supply problems is to amend the EPIRA Law and allow power distribution utilities such as MORE Power to operate their own power plants and supply their own franchise areas with uninterrupted power. But that’s just wishful thinking, of course.
Meanwhile, here’s a bit of feel-good news, still about MORE Power: the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) recognized the power distributor as one of its key partners during the culmination of the 31st Police Community Relations Month.
During the celebration, MORE Power President and CEO Roel Castro cited the campaign against illegal connections as one of the best examples of proactive collaboration between the police and MORE Power.
Through joint efforts with the PNP and barangay officials — including dialogues with individuals found tampering with electrical connections — as well as the easing of electricity application requirements with the help of the Iloilo City Government, MORE Power significantly reduced its system losses.
From a staggering 30%, MORE Power’s system loss has now dropped to just 3.83% — well below the 5.5% cap set by the Energy Regulatory Commission./PN
