Meralco presents roadmap for Smart Grid

Meralco announced that said it is engaging various stakeholders on discussions on its proposed Smart Grid roadmap.

Meralco together with its consultant from General Electric, Dr. Bartosz Wojszczyk met with various representatives from the business community to present its roadmap and the benefits of Smart Grid technology.

“Customers will be empowered because they will see their consumption at hourly intervals and thus take the actions needed to meet their budgets, or else reschedule activities to off peak hours for lower rates. Globally, the experience has resulted to savings of 5 to 15 percent,” said Alfredo S. Panlilio, Meralco Senior Vice President and head of Customer Retail Services and Corporate Communications.

“The other significant benefit is in the area of outage management and unserved energy reduction especially to our corporate clients where an outage can cost a company millions of pesos in foregone revenues and spoilage of raw material inputs,” added Ricardo V. Buencamino, Meralco Executive Vice President and head of Networks.

Meralco plans to undertake a technical pilot of prepaid meters within the year.

“Prepaid electricity fits in with the Filipino’s penchant for sachet pricing, dovetails his cash flow, allows for control and sharing of expenses, and avoids the shock of a monthly bill,” Panlilio said.

For higher end residential customers, Meralco can offer home area networks that allow them to monitor and switch on or off their appliances remotely thru their phones or tablets. Meralco envisions an energy management application in the home area networks that will enable and empower customers to optimize their energy usage,” he said.

With Smart Grid, Meralco will also be able to accommodate renewable energy sources, consistent with government moves encouraging renewable energy. The charging infrastructure for electric vehicles is also facilitated by Smart Grid.

“Truly, Smart Grid is the call of the times. It empowers us to control our consumption while being the platform for innovations like prepaid electricity, electric vehicles, and home area networks. Meralco is working on a sensible implementation plan that will allow the Philippines to be in step with the rest of the world,” he concluded.