Manila Electric Co., the power distribution firm led by tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan, is tapping the expertise of a US-based firm to bolster its smart grid modernization plan.
The company said Wednesday it has teamed up with Itron, Inc., a known player in energy and water resource management with its solutions reaching utilities in more than 100 countries.
As the country’s biggest power distributor, Meralco, through its advanced metering infrastructure program, seeks to deploy ‘a smarter, more responsive, and customer-centric energy system.’
According to its top official, Meralco hopes to take advantage of Iltron’s ‘Gen5 solution,’ meant to provide ‘near real-time, two-way communication’ between its operations and end users.
‘With Itron’s Gen5 solution, we are building a smart grid that not only supports the country’s push toward advancing the digital economy but also enhances Meralco’s customer-centricity through improved billing services, greater customer visibility into their energy use, and improved response times to outages,’ Meralco executive vice president and chief operating officer Ronnie Aperocho said in a statement.
Coverage
The initial coverage will include 73,000 endpoints across Metro Manila.
Meralco intends to expand the rollout to cover its other franchise areas, such as Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, and select areas in Pampanga, Laguna, Batangas and Quezon.
‘Our proven, scalable Gen5 solution is upgrading the way Meralco delivers, measures and manages electricity. The solution is designed to support multiple meter brands, giving Meralco the flexibility to scale without vendor lock-in,’ Itron senior vice president of Networked Solutions John Marcolini said.
‘For a utility with such a large and diverse service territory, that flexibility is essential to future-proofing deployments and reducing total cost of ownership,’ Marcolini added.