Aboitiz Power installs first digital substation in Davao

By Myrna M. Velasco – August 1, 2020, 10:00 PM
from Manila Bulletin

A distribution subsidiary of Aboitiz Power Corporation has installed the first “digital substation” in Davao City to cater to the growing electricity needs of consumers in the area.

The conglomerate’s Davao Light and Power Company Inc. (DLPC) has just recently launched its new Calinan substation as its trailblazing venture in the digital space for power substations – it being an integral part of its electricity distribution network.

“Digitizing a substation is a big step in improving accuracy, efficiency, reliability and availability of power supply,” DLPC has emphasized; and that has been part of its commitment that never waned even in the height of a global health crisis.

Notwithstanding the coronavirus pandemic that virtually fettered the country in recent months, DLPC President and COO Rodger S. Velasco narrated the company “continued to push forward with this project despite the trying times because the Calinan substation will help us make sure to keep the lights on for our customers during this community quarantine period.”

The Calinan digital substation can primarily vouch for an “improved higher capacity that can cater to more customers in surrounding areas,” the company noted.

The facility is equipped with communications system that enables online monitoring assessment; which in turn facilitates early detection of probable technical problems. And with that, the utility firm can be prompted on what decisive action to take to address any glitch shackling its system’s operation.

DLPC explained “this will minimize the physical checking of the substation’s status and manual labor in restoring power, which is vital during the quarantine period.”

And beyond surviving the menace of the lingering coronavirus plague, the company indicated that the longer term goal is to turn DLPC into a world-class distribution utility, noting that this is just the initial step for the firm to “keep its pace in the worldwide trend of digitization.”

Davao City is anticipating sustained growth in electricity demand that could average 6.0-percent yearly given the multitude of commercial as well as industrial developments coming off in the area.

As of last year, it was noted that 50-percent of the base consumption of the customers being served by the Davao power utility are in that segment (commercial and industrial); then 10-percent for the lower-amplitude commercial; and the balance of 40-percent accounted for the residential customers.

As noted, the industrial end-users in the area are mostly cement plants; and the rest are manufacturing facilities that in turn have been fueling economic expansion and growth in Davao.

In the past two years, power demand expansion had been generally driven by the rise of academic institutions in the city – including the Malayan Colleges Davao of the Yuchengco Group; the Lyceum of the Philippines; and the Jose Maria College, which is an academic institution set up by religious leader Apollo Quiboloy.

Such array of additional end-users plus the proliferation of real estate developments in that urban sprawl propelled DLPC’s demand growth up to the extent of 8.0-percent in 2018.

On a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) basis, it has been emphasized that average demand rise had been 6.0-percent in the past five years.