Meralco ramps up support to hyperscalers

MANILA, Philippines — The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is ramping up its support to global hyperscalers through the energization of more data centers in the country.

Meralco executive vice president and chief operating officer Ronnie Aperocho said a total of seven hyperscale data centers with estimated total demand of 26.02 megavolt-amperes are slated to be energized this year.

“We have completed the works for ePLDT Vitro Makati, Globe ST Telemedia Theodore, and Zenutna D&R Corp. while we remain firm in providing power to Globe Citadel, Satori Property One, Streamtech and IPC Rack I.T. data centers,” Aperocho said.

Hyperscalers refer to tech giants who are always in search of facilities, or companies operating data centers that offer scalable cloud computing services.

“Of course we know that the Philippines is turning into a hub for hyperscale data centers and we have already laid out our plans to support these hyperscalers – from recalibrating our green supply portfolio buildup because these hyperscalers want clean energy supply to timely energization of their facilities within the franchise,” Aperocho said.

“We know that hyperscalers will be very vital in processing big data, and in providing storage for various computing businesses. Providing them with adequate and reliable power would be imperative as they could fast-track our adoption of new technologies toward a sustainable energy future,” he said.

Meralco earlier teamed up with the PLDT Group to ensure that the country’s largest hyperscale data center will have reliable and high-quality electricity service once it starts operations.

“We really need to attract the hyperscalers onto our shores and the assurance of renewable and stable supply of power are very important to those hyperscalers,” Meralco chairman and CEO and PLDT chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said.

Meralco is the largest electric power distribution company in the country with a total customer count of 7.716 million as of end-June.

For its core distribution utility business, Meralco has filed with the Energy Regulatory Commission a P150-billion capital expenditure program for the next four years.

“The capex projects shall be necessary for augmenting the capacity of our network to cater to the growing demands of our customers, and replacing aging and hazardous facilities among others,” Aperocho said.

“The capex amount also covers the proposed investment worth around P40 billion for deploying smart grid projects,” he said.

On power generation, meanwhile, Meralco will invest around P18 billion to further boost its renewable energy portfolio.

The investment covers the construction of more than two gigawatts of gross renewable energy capacity from wind and solar by 2030.