Meralco to ramp up EV fleet deployment to 25%

Power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will be accelerating its fleet electrification to 25-percent by the turn of the decade, and this is a way for it to help speed up the country’s overall bid for electric mobility.

Ferdinand O. Geluz, first vice president and chief commercial officer of Meralco, said “we will continue to ramp up our EV (electric vehicle) deployment and by 2030, we aim to reach at least 25-percent fleet electrification complete with the required ecosystem to run these EVs.”

The requirement for fleet electrification of covered entities in the commercial and industrial sectors would be at least 10-percent EVs in their transport portfolio, but Meralco has already been advancing on that journey even prior to the passage or the Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act (EVIDA) or Republic Act 11697.

The original mandate under the law was just initially prescribed at 5.0-percent EV adoption for fleets, but that was recently jacked up to 10-percent by the Department of Energy (DOE) so the country can gain traction on its e-mobility goals.

“With our network and capabilities, we believe that Meralco is in a position to help stimulate demand and develop the infrastructure support especially in the rollout of EV charging stations,” Geluz told participants at the ongoing Giga Summit at the Meralco Power Academy.

At present, the company already converted 156 of its transport fleets to EVs – and these range from cars, vans, pick-ups and motorcycles that are used by its sector-offices and business centers for their operations.

“This represents 7.0-percent of our total vehicles – versus 5.0-percent EVIDA target - which serve the daily operational needs of our sector offices and business centers,” the Meralco executive has reiterated.

He specified that for the charging requirements of these fleets, the company also installed at least 39 EV chargers across Meralco business units where these EVs are utilized.

Being the country’s biggest power distribution utility, Meralco is also prudently weighing the rollout of EVs in a manner that it will not stress the grid; and the fundamental duty of providing electricity services to consumers shall not be compromised.

And when the country already reaches a point wherein electricity supply-demand will already be at its well-balanced state, Meralco is similarly pushing for the use of renewable energy (RE) in the EV chargers to ensure that decarbonization is achieved even at the core of energy source in powering these vehicles.