Iloilo City: MORE Electric and Power Corporation (MORE Power) has assured its capability to meet the city's increasing electricity demand. 'When we came in five years ago, the suppressed demand was very high, which is shown by these numbers now, where our growth is over 13 percent. Just to make it very simple, when we came in, there were about 62,000 customers. Now we're already over 100,000,' MORE Power president and chief executive officer Roel Castro said on Monday.

According to Philippines News Agency, Castro presented these figures to key city government officials and representatives from Metro Pacific Iloilo Water and Metro Iloilo Water District at the request of Mayor Jerry Tre±as. 'The mayor asked for a presentation on our growth because, over the past five years, our compounded annual growth rate has been approximately 13 percent. This increase is also reflected in the expected growth of other utilities,' he said.

To support this expansion, MORE Power has already rehabilitated its 25/30 megavolt-amperes (MVA) Molo substation. However, due to the rising demand in the area, the company plans to build another substation in Arevalo district. The power utility has already established substations in Megaworld and Diversion, and they are gearing up to rehabilitate the Mandurriao substation.

Castro said that this dry season, they also have enough contracts to cover the period. 'So we have prepared, both on the contracting side for capacity as well as on the facilities,' he said. The power demand for Iloilo City is now over 120 megawatts, he added.