Meralco: Improving energy affordability, accessibility, and reliability

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Through the years, Meralco has consistently worked to provide attainable, reachable, and dependable energy to all through fair pricing, full electrification of franchise areas, and improving the resiliency of its distribution network. As a world-class energy solutions provider, Meralco powers the heart of the country, including those in unserved and underserved communities. In collaboration with the Energy Regulatory Commission and other partners. 

Meralco’s implementation of new Power Supply Agreements made through its Competitive Selection Process has resulted in significantly lower generation charges, allowing customers from all segments to enjoy lower-than-average retail rates. 

By the end of 2021, Meralco has inched considerably closer to the 100% electrification target of its franchise area. It added 14,913 households to the grid under the Meralco Electrification Program and an extra 7,509 indigent households through the Household Electrification Program. It worked with the local barangays, community associations, and private property owners to bring light and power to communities facing legal and other forms of challenges. Meralco ended the year with 99.98% of households in its franchise area now energized. 

As part of its long-term plans to improve the reliability and resiliency of its entire distribution network against extreme weather events and other natural disturbances, Meralco invested P1.9 billion in the Storm Hardening Program and the Lightning Protection Improvement Program. It replaced 8,223 power distribution poles as a precaution against strong typhoons in order to reduce the occurrence of outages. About 8,470 covers were installed to protect power lines and equipment while 4,192 wooden crossarms were replaced with fiberglass to make the power grid more resistant against lightning strikes and other power surges. 

With these enhancements, Meralco saw its system reliability performance improve in 2021 as measured by the System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI), which went down to 1.41x from 1.50x in 2020. The length of power interruption as measured by the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) dropped as well to 138.8 minutes from 163.0 minutes the previous year, with power restored in 98.4 minutes, as compared to 108.6 minutes of the Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI) in 2020. 

MPTC: Designing for Resilience

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MPTC’s expressways are built based on the highest standards of roadworthiness. However, toll roads remain highly vulnerable to the elements and to cumulative degradation due to nonstop use. MPTC and its subsidiaries maintain its road networks via an integrated management system that complies with international benchmarks on service quality, environmental protection, and occupational health and safety. 

The company is committed to further fortifying its facilities by making them even more resilient against typhoons, floods, and other climate risks that occur yearly in the Philippines. At present, MPTC fortifies its properties and anticipates damage through the guidance and recommendations of their periodical audits and assessment of infrastructure. The company is looking into expanding the audit process by including climate resilience in the assessment. Through this, MPTC can effectively foresee and respond to the effect on its assets for disaster and climate resilience. 

MPTC has a disaster recovery plan for its current and future projects as part of its current plans to incorporate all the identified slow-onset, high-impact climate-related risks and hazards in business continuity programs and financial plans. The company’s protocols in response to disasters were improved further by its membership with the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation. Relationships with government regulators are also greatly leveraged to effectively coordinate disaster recovery efforts when needed. Information on timely disaster-related initiatives are consistently released in the company’s internal and public communication platforms. Moving forward, the company is looking into integrating additional mechanisms to our business continuity plan to ensure swift recovery to business operations. 

Roads are critical infrastructure that enable the safe and rapid movement of people, goods, and services. These pathways to development connect communities and foster economic growth, linking producers to markets, populations to places, and opportunities to individuals and businesses. 

MPTC’s toll roads drive trade and tourism between serviced towns through promotional campaigns, strategic partnerships with local governments, and improved access to markets, socio-economic facilities, and basic services. Through these activities, MPTC seeks to be the catalyst for economic activity between its serviced cities and towns. 

These activities include the yearly NLEX Lakbay Norte program to promote travel and cultural destinations north of Metro Manila. The program was relaunched with a tour of historic Bulacan sites after relaxed mobility restrictions in July 2021. This was followed by a visit to culinary destinations in Pampanga in November in partnership with Geely Philippines. Before
the year ended, MPTC also partnered with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) in Region IV to promote travel destinations in the region. MPT South has also established the Biyaheng South social media page to promote tourist destinations which can easily be accessed through its toll road network in Cavite and Laguna. It also partnered with local government units and local businesses to create content that will further generate the interest of travelers to try and visit the new destinations and dishes in these two provinces. 

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Maynilad’s water supply comes primarily from two sources: the Umiray-Angat-Ipo water system and Laguna Lake. Withdrawal allocation from these sources is set by the concession agreement with the Philippine government. The National Water Resources Board closely monitors and regulates Maynilad’s water withdrawal from the Umiray-Angat-Ipo watershed; the Laguna Lake Development Authority oversees activities in Laguna Lake. Water from Umiray-Angat-Ipo accounted for 87.6% of Maynilad’s total withdrawal in 2021 while 10.6% came from Laguna Lake. 

While government agencies regulate Maynilad’s water withdrawal as part of their mandated regulatory function, Maynilad uses its own advanced systems to monitor and keep its withdrawals in check. Maynilad’s Water Supply Operations department ensures that all withdrawals are within prescribed limits and there is no undue exploitation of resources. 

Given the water volume from Umiray- Angat-Ipo, Maynilad focused on completing upgrades and other technical improvements to the La Mesa Treatment Plant (LMTP) which process water that flows from these sources. Maynilad invested in the thorough rehabilitation of LMTP 1 and LMTP 2, including the installation of a new system to increase the treatment capacity of high turbidity raw water, improvements in sedimentation and filtration basins, and retrofitting the entire facility to withstand high- magnitude earthquakes and extreme weather events. 

Maynilad also invested in enhancements designed to improve the resiliency of existing infrastructure throughout the Umiray-Angat- Ipo water system. This includes the design and construction of Angat Water Transmission Improvement Project Tunnel 5, repair of Angat Penstock and exposed areas in the Bigte-Novaliches aqueducts, and rehabilitation of Ipo Dam radial and silt ejector gates. These modifications and developments are all designed to increase resiliency of raw water conveyance from source to treatment plant, raise overall efficiency to ensure maximum withdrawal utilization, and establish reasonable redundancy measures to keep 100% water uptime. 

Through Maynilad’s strong self-regulation and all these operational improvements, coupled with its various engagements in watershed protection and conservation in partnership with volunteers and other MPIC organizations, the company is able to care for its primary water sources, securing this precious resource for future generations.

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Maynilad seeks to provide water and wastewater services to all within its concession area by 2037. Since 2007, it has been working to expand service coverage year after year, incrementally 

adding new pipelines to its distribution network and making new water service connections possible. It has also replaced as much as 110.4 kilometers of decrepit pipelines to reduce non-revenue water. Increasing the water supply through efficiency initiatives and finding new water sources is vital to making safe and clean water more widely available. 

Maynilad continuously looks to develop alternative water sources to augment its current water supply and reduce its reliance on the Umiray-Angat-Ipo system and Laguna Lake. It sources groundwater from 8 deep wells to boost water supply when needed. It is constructing modular treatment plants that extract raw water from four dams in Cavite. So far, Maynilad has invested almost P1.6 billion in modular treatment plants in Julian Dam, Anabu Dam, Ligas Dam, and Molino Dam, which are all expected to be completed by 2024 but will supply the first 16 MLD to Cavite by the end of 2022. Maynilad also allocated P71.4 million in a mobile treatment plant that will process water from Tullahan River and generate an additional MLD for the city of Valenzuela, and P304.6 million for consultancy to develop a 300-MLD water treatment facility in Teresa, Rizal, in anticipation of Kaliwa Dam. 

To lessen withdrawal from natural water bodies, Maynilad invested P512.7 million in a modular treatment plant that will recycle effluents from Parañaque water reclamation facility into potable water. This cutting edge facility is expected to supply 10 MLD to the city when completed. 

Meanwhile, Maynilad lowered rates to accommodate and provide lifeline customers from low income communities with access to water. By the end of 2021, lifeline customers who consume up to 10 cubic meters of water account for 31.8% of Maynilad’s total residential customers. Maynilad also works to make water available to more unserved communities through special reachout programs like Pag-asa sa Patubig Partnership (P3), Samahang Tubig Maynilad (STM), and Tubig Pag-asa Water Relief Fund. 

In terms of sanitation, Maynilad has been investing heavily on upgrading and expanding its sewer network, boosting the capability of its wastewater treatment plants, and acquiring new vacuum truck units (VTU) to expand the reach of its sanitation service within the concession area. It spent P969 million on the Central Manila Sewerage System (CWSS) Rehabilitation Project so that its sewer lines can accommodate a larger volume of wastewater discharged from households and businesses in Manila’s 30 barangays. 

Maynilad continues to provide free desludging or septic tank cleaning services to customers who remain unconnected to the sewerage system. It has a total of 93 operational VTUs and increased it sanitation service provision to 8,291,846 customers in 2021 from 5,651,380 in 2020 with base year on start of sanitation cycle in 2017.