Meralco upgrades System Control Center

MANILA, Philippines - Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s biggest power distributor, has poured in up to P40 million to modernize its System Control Center in a bid to improve its distribution capability and resolve outages in its franchise area.

The upgraded System Control Center will give the company total visibility on its franchise area, including the grid up to the metering point of its customers, Meralco vice president and head of networks Ronnie Aperocho said during a media visit to the company’s System Control Center.

“Through the smart meters and total visibility at our System Control Center, even before the customer would call us, we already deployed our crew to fix the problem,” he said.

The new System Control Center was inaugurated last May 2015 and houses a 4x15 meter system control monitor which allows for a multiple display and wider real-time system visibility.

The company will be able to swiftly determine the source of the problem in its franchise area through the new system platform, Meralco head of systems control Joey Alonzo said in the same event.

“Because of this, we will know the nature of the problem whether it is transmission, generation or distribution,” he added.

The improved system control center is part of the company’s proactive service to its customers, Aperocho noted.

The System Control Center is part of the Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS) project of the company, which is aimed to meet Meralco’s growing customer base. Other components of the project are the Call Center and Operations Office.

The ADMS will replace the obsolete Operating Trouble Management System (OTMS), which has been running since 1998.

Approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in July 2014, the project will be implemented over a 21-month period.