TO assist in the growth of local industries, the Visayan Electric Co., Inc. (Veco) is expanding its power substations in the different locations of its franchise area.

It said it has several substation projects due for completion this year to provide an additional 78.5 MVA in substation capacity to its network.

Bailey del Castillo, Veco’s assistant vice president for engineering support, said they have upgraded the substations of Consolacion and Calamba at 33 MVA each to serve the growing power requirement in the areas.

Veco is also building a new substation in San Fernando, which will carry a 12.5 MVA capacity. This new substation will be the 20th substation, which will bring total capacity to 850 MVA.

According to del Castillo, growth has been noted in all areas of Cebu, the reason they needed to ramp up their infrastructure.

“Cebu’s economy is on the rise. We see more condo projects and office buildings that are being built. Outside the city center, we also see expansion of residential projects and businesses that demand new connections,” said del Castillo.

Veco expects to maintain system loss at 6.5 percent by the end of 2018.

It likewise expects distribution utilities projects to grow its kilowatt-hour sales by 6.49 percent to 3,044.33 gWh and generate a total of P23.49 billion in gross revenue this year.

Veco’s anticipated high growth for the year will be driven by the continued rise of local industries, said del Castillo. The rise in fuel prices also pushed companies to lessen the usage of their generators and instead rely on power from Veco.

Moreover, the Veco official said they will add at least two power substations in 2019.

A new substation will be installed near the Cebu IT Park, which will have 33 MVA to cater to the accelerated developments in the area.

The other substation, which will also have a capacity of 33 MVA, will be erected at the South Road Properties (SRP) in Mambaling.

From 422,000 customers last year, Veco’s current customer count now stands at 427,000, as of April. (KOC)