Meralco sees Entertainment City as new growth area

MANILA, Philippines - Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s biggest power distributor, has its eyes set on the sprawling Entertainment City as a new growth area.

Meralco senior vice-president and head of Customer Retail Services Al Panlilio said that with the gaming and entertainment city booming at the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation’s (Pagcor) 120-hectare Entertainment City, Meralco sees additional revenues once the project is complete.

The power utility firm is on track to completing a substation in the area by 2014.

“We should have the substation ready by September 2014,” Panlilio said.

He said Meralco has already sought the approval of the ERC to build the substation.

Panilio said that Meralco expects an additional 41.5 gigawatt hours a month from all four Pagcor licensees once their operations go full blast.

Solaire Resort and Casino, owned by ports tycoon Enrique Razon, is projected to consume 4 GWh per month while Belle Grande, owned by the SM Group’s Belle Corp., needs at least 2.5 GWh monthly.

Manila Bay Resorts of the Universal Entertainment Group is expected to consume 13 GWh initially while Andrew Tan’s Travellers International Hotel Group expects its Resorts World Bayshore Casino to consume 22 GWh a month when it opens in 2016.

“This is a huge development for us,” Panlilio said.

In its filing with the ERC in May, Meralco proposed to build a P1.15-billion substation.

Meralco said it would need at least 18 months to commission the project. As such, the power utility firm appealed to regulators for a provisional authority (PA) for the purpose.

According to its plan, Meralco plans to put up a 2.4 kilometer, 115-kilovolt (kV) substation with two 83 mega-volt amperes power transformers.

 â€œTo enable the timely energization of these new investor loads in the Pagcor Entertainment City and the additional power requirements of consumers in the adjacent areas, Meralco proposes the development of the Pagcor-1 substation,” it said.

Without the substation, Meralco said there may be critical loading of existing transformers in the area by 2014 and possibly an overloading by 2015.

“As such, without the additional capacity to be provided by the project, it will be impossible to accommodate these applications in the Pagcor Entertainment City and adjacent areas,” Meralco said.

From January to June, Meralco’s consolidated volume of energy sold rose to 16,863 GWh, four percent higher than the volume sold a year ago.