Electric utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will be installing a power substation that will support the electricity service needs of the mammoth hyperscale data center of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) that will be sited in a five-hectare property in Santa Rosa, Laguna.

According to the utility firm, it will be building a custom-designed substation on the site of VITRO Sta. Rosa. The PLDT's 11th hyperscale data center will initially require 15 megawatts of power to be ramped up to 54 megawatts upon full completion. The power substation itself can accommodate a load of up to 150MW capacity.

“This substation design will provide resilient and flexible power to the data center, ensuring service continuity that goes beyond the standard requirements of the TIA-942 Rated 3 coverage,” the power firm expounded.

Meralco Senior Vice President and Head of Networks Ronnie L. Aperocho noted that in a developing country like the Philippines, “innovations become imperative to support and spur development,” adding that the PLDT Group has been flourishing on this investment terrain so it can provide “topnotch service to its clients.”

Hyperscale data centers or the information technology (IT) cloud giants typically lean on reliable, efficient as well as ample power supply to viably support the scale of storage and global network of allocations for their operations – and that will also integrate their requirements for cooling and power redundancy.

The hyperscaler-clients include the likes of Google, Amazon, Facebook, Alibaba and other IT data giants that have been dominating the cloud and cloud industries.

Aperocho said “the new Meralco substation is designed to support the distinct power requirements of this VITRO Sta. Rosa hyperscale data center through the delivery of safe, adequate, reliable, and high-quality electricity service.”

As cast on blueprint, Meralco noted that the VITRO Sta. Rosa “is designed to be energy efficient utilizing the latest innovations in cooling and power redundancy. It is Tier-3 certified and Tier-4 ready, and has the highest level of network diversity and resilience with at least three fiber routes from PLDT, augmented by routes from other carriers.”

The power firm specified that “the power substation will serve the dynamic power requirements of the hyperscale data center and will have the capability to scale-up and address the growing power demand of the facility over time through the installation of additional power banks.”

PLDT President and CEO Alfredo S. Panlilio highlighted that their biggest data center serves as the company’s contribution “in building a digitally advanced Philippines and making our country the next hyperscaler destination in Asia Pacific.”

He asserted “with VITRO Sta. Rosa, we aim to set the benchmark in infrastructure resilience, operational excellence, global competitiveness, and world-class sustainability.”

Panlilio added “a facility of this caliber ensures the best possible customer experience not only for our hyperscale clients, but also for the Filipino end-users consuming their services. We at the PLDT Group are committed to providing world-class services to our global enterprise clients and to enabling the digital transformation of the country and the Filipino people.”

For PLDT and Smart First Vice President & Head of Enterprise Business Group Jojo G. Gendrano, who is also the chief commercial officer of ePLDT, he stated that “this partnership with Meralco will assure our customers of unparalleled service. With this, coupled with ePLDT’s deep data center operational experience and expertise, we are able to provide our valued customers with world class co-location services.”

Given the very power-intensive nature of operating data centers, Meralco President and CEO Ray C. Espinosa intimated that the affiliate-companies will continue to integrate sustainability into the design and system of operations in their projects.

“Beyond providing the massive power requirements of the hyperscale data center, Meralco also commits to support PLDT’s thrust to utilize renewable energy (RE) and energy efficient technologies to make the data center operations truly sustainable,” he stressed.

The inclination of powering PLDT’s hyperscale data center with clean energy is aligned with Meralco’s onward investment journey of scaling up its RE installations to 1,500MW in the next five years.