Veco Banilad substation upgrade to benefit 2 Cebu business hubs

The Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) has upgraded its Banilad substation to address the growing power needs of its eastern cluster where the Cebu IT Park and Cebu Business Park are located.

THE GROWING demand for power has prompted the Visayan Electric Company (Veco) to upgrade its Banilad substation.

From an original capacity of 33 MVA (Mega Volt Ampere), the facility’s capacity was doubled to 66MVA to serve more stable power needs in the eastern cluster of Veco’s franchise.

“This is to address the growing needs of Cebu, specifically in the IT Park area and Cebu Business Park,” said Veco Chief Operating Officer Anton Mari Perdices during the facility’s inauguration yesterday morning.

He said that IT Park has continued to expand with more developments while other nearby areas are also seeing more apartments, houses, and commercial establishments.

Aside from these two business hubs, the upgraded facility is also expected to improve the distribution network in the Banilad area and along A.S. Fortuna Ave.

Perdices said Veco invested P90 million in the upgrading of the Banilad substation which started in the middle of 2017.

But he assured that the cost for the upgrading would not be passed on to their consumers through higher electricity bills.

A substation is a set of equipment that reduces the high voltage of electrical power transmission to that which is suitable for supply to consumers.

With the upgraded substation, Veco will be able to easily transfer loads quickly from one substation to another during emergencies within the eastern cluster.

According to Perdices, the upgrade is also part of its N-1 reliability standards for a robust and reliable network.

Maintaining this kind of standards means that a single loss of power transformer within each region would still enable Veco to provide electricity to its customers without curtailment.

Veco serves the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, Talisay, and Naga as well as the municipalities of Liloan, Consolacion, Minglanilla, and San Fernando.

The power utility firm currently has 19 substations with more than 1,000 MVA of capacity.

But even with this, Perdices said they were also planning to put up at least three more substations within the next three years.

These will be located in San Fernando town, in Barangay Mambaling in Cebu City near the South Road Properties (SRP), and in Barangay Lahug.

No power rate hike

Meanwhile, Veco also assured no power rate increase would be implemented anytime soon.

This despite the reported increase in electricity rates in Metro Manila.

Quennie Bronce, Veco’s reputation enhancement manager, said there are no changes so far that will push them to increase their rates.

“As far as Veco is concerned,there are no changes or increases in distribution charge. This is the part of the electric bill that goes to Veco as distribution utility,” she said.

She said that the utility firm could not also increase rates on their own as they would need the approval from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC)before they could implement any electricity rate increases.

Bronce, however, advised consumers to conserve energy because the summer months are here.

She said that consumers might experience higher electric bills due to more demand with the hotter weather, and the fact that children would spend more time at home since it would be vacation time.

She said that consumers should follow energy saving tips including removing all plugs of electronic devices when not in use and using the right air conditioner for the right space or room to maximize its capacity.