Newsrooms typically race against time to break the latest stories and deliver attention-grabbing headlines to the public with seamless connectivity – hence, access to reliable and affordable electricity is essential to the operations of the nation’s leading newspaper.

The traditional set-up had been for media organizations to rely fully on grid-drawn power supply and being tethered to a single power utility provider despite susceptibility to outages and electricity service fluctuations as well as bill shocks due to volatile electricity rates especially on tight supply conditions.

But that already took a transformative change because of the Retail Competition and Open Access (RCOA) prescription of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act – a policy that puts ‘power of choice’ in the hands of consumers when it comes to negotiating and contracting electricity services from their preferred power suppliers. That in itself evokes a different kind of power play that has been redefining the rules of the game – primarily for the consumers.

Fundamentally, businesses and electricity end-users at or above the prescribed 500 kilowatt threshold, (which are classified as ‘contestable customers’) can already ‘switch’ to a Retail Electricity Supplier (RES) of their choice: one that best matches their requirements at the most competitive rate; and that comes even with preference for ‘green solutions’ for the sustainability-savvy corporates and enterprises.

For media organizations, in particular, securing power supply and quality service from retail suppliers has to be aligned with their workflows, operational hours, budgetary constraints as well as on the need to keep pace with the shifting currents of newsrooms in a digital age.

According to Manila Bulletin Publisher Sonny Coloma, the company’s choice of its RES had been anchored on “suitability of services offered and proven track record – and that impelled MB to tap Aboitiz Power Corporation (AboitizPower). Thus far, AboitizPower has delivered reliable and economically-beneficial results.”

Tailored RES solution for Manila Bulletin

The electrifying tale of Manila Bulletin’s past dependence on a plain vanilla power source started flickering like a fading story since 2013 – that was the time when the country’s leading newspaper yielded to the allure of RES services prompting it to sign up with AboitizPower as its power supplier and service provider.

Coloma qualified that businesses – including media organizations, “continually seek to improve cost efficiency and service dependability. Tapping RES is an option – and to Manila Bulletin, AboitizPower is a topnotch supplier backed by a credible track record.” 

Engineer Alvin Mendigoria, assistant vice president and head of Engineering Department at Manila Bulletin, narrated that “the first RES contract that we have with AboitizPower was for 10 years – that started in May 2013 and it expired in August 2023” – and for now, that relationship is already traversing its next chapter with a contract renewal stretching from August 2023 to September 2027.

He explained that MB’s contract renewal with AboitizPower was not just a mere routine transaction, it’s a strategic move to safeguard the company from possible electricity service disruptions due to outages because one of the non-negotiable requirement of Manila Bulletin is a more reliable energy supply.

“In the past, we worry about the reliability of our power supply. But with RES, if there is supply outage, AboitizPower can help secure access to electricity service – so that is a very beneficial arrangement that we have with them,” Mendigoria shared

AboitizPower President and CEO Emmanuel V. Rubio highlighted that “most of our offers already have provision for replacement power, which we are able to manage by contracting a reliable portfolio of supply from power plants that are both owned by AboitizPower and other partners in the industry. This way, we manage the exposure of customers during outages.” 

On the sphere of tariff negotiation and cost savings, Mendigoria conveyed there’s a strategic edge that the customer can judiciously tilt into its favor – primarily if that company-end user has a clear picture of its expectations and what it really wants on the quality of service it will be requiring from its RES.

He added “the after-sales service of AboitizPower is top-tier, their account executives are very accommodating and they will act quickly if there are concerns that we will be raising with them.” 

For that, Mendigoria advised that for business-customers to leverage on their negotiating positions,  the must-haves are: accurate data on the company’s load profile, historical and prevailing trends on energy usage and what are the market conditions that will be affecting business operations in the patronage of a retail power supplier.

And before underwriting any retail supply contract (RSC) with a RES, it is equally important for the business-customer to read the fine print, understand and scrutinize the terms and conditions and as well as ensure that every detail comes to the satisfaction of both parties.

From the RES fence, Rubio emphasized “our offers, products, and services are tailor-fitted to the needs of the customers, which is why we have become a preferred RES.”

He expounded that “for customers, especially the large ones, it is important that you truly understand their needs and business, so you can provide solutions that matter.”

Rubio similarly noted that “in most cases, rate competitiveness remains to be the main factor especially for large customers, but we are also seeing more and more customers who also consider the technology as a main factor for them to achieve sustainability targets.”

“Manila Bulletin believes in sustainability. Its basic product --- a newspaper --- is printed with soy ink on recyclable paper. Electric power drives the machines that print newspapers; and to further enhance sustainability, MB opted to achieve higher levels of efficiency and economy in energy use. This led to the decision to tap AboitizPower’s services as a retail electricity supplier capable of providing tailor fit solutions to address MB’s energy requirements,” he stressed.

Portfolio contracting: the beauty of 3-in-1 bundle for the Yap conglomerate

While every kilowatt counts and efficiency is king that can supercharge a business, Mendigoria noted that “when Manila Bulletin was first enticed to contract power supply from RES in 2013, it has been fraught with erratic load profile – and that became a deterrent for the other prospective RES suppliers to serve us; so it was like a case of: many are invited, but few – or in our case, only one is chosen.”

A load profile presents a snapshot of the company’s energy consumption patterns through the years – and in MB’s case, it shows an unpredictable peaks and valleys of less-than-desired usage cycle that can wreak havoc on energy costs as well as operational efficiency.

He described that in the current mode of MB’s operations, “our peak consumption is usually in the evening because that’s when we would do our printing; then at day time – especially in the morning, our electricity consumption can get very low, so that’s where the distortion in our load profile has been coming from.”

Laden with that grotesque load profile predicament, Mendigoria asserted “that scared off the other RES, so they suddenly turned their back from us – but AboitizPower was different. Instead of taking it as a disincentive, it diligently worked with us; and it was intent on helping us comprehensively address our power needs. To them, our not-so-good load profile is not the end of the line, instead they took that as just the beginning of a journey into transforming our energy usage patterns and in empowering us as its customer in managing our power needs.”

Rubio professed “the common concern of customers is the change in the setup. They used to deal  only with the DUs (distribution utilities) before, and they are worried that making the switch will complicate things, which is why educating them is important.”

Primary requirement, the AboitizPower executive said is “they need to qualify and meet the threshold for contestability. We will request their power bills to understand how they consume electricity, and that is when we make the offer to them. If the terms are okay with the parties, they just need to sign the contract and we are ready to switch them.” 

Thus, with AboitizPower’s assessment or audit process, proactive analysis of data presented and weighing up the warranted interventions, “what was agreed as a solution had been portfolio contracting, so we bundled the three companies under the Yap conglomerate for our RES contract with AboitizPower – so that’s Manila Bulletin, Manila Hotel and Euro-Med Laboratories,” Mendigoria noted.

He enthused that of the three companies, “the load profiles of Manila Hotel and Euro-Med have been relatively stable, so they both have that strategic advantage. Then when we integrated Manila Bulletin into the portfolio contracting set-up, we were able to smoothen out the unfavorable highs and lows of MB’s load profile – and that also improved our negotiating stance with AboitizPower.”

For the tariff, Mendigoria imparted that the Yap-owned firms cornered different rates in the contract, “Manila Hotel and Euro-Med have been given lower rates because of their stable load profile, but the rate that Manila Bulletin cornered was not also exorbitant – it was just a little bit higher than the two, so that’s the beauty of having that 3-in-1 bundle with our RES supplier.”

Cost savings

On Manila Bulletin’s realm, Mendigoria reckoned that there were already cost savings logged since the newspaper company opted for a service from a retail power supplier, with him qualifying that the monthly bill average has been reduced by 12 to 20%.

One major equipment that requires very sensitive handling in newspaper publishing and media operations is the chiller; with Mendigoria specifying that its thermostat has to be steadily set at least within 60% level - because if that will go down to 50% or lower 40%, that could end up in equipment damage, not just in the printing press but also in Manila Bulletin’s newsroom and administration office.

He expounded that maintaining precise temperature for the chiller could keep printing press operations at peak performance – because that guarantees optimal conditions for ink viscosity, equipment efficiency and even paper quality; therefore, that could ensure that every print would come out flawless.

Suffice it to say that behind the scenes of every publication and digital media platforms are complex network of high performance computers and editing software at news arsenals as well as printing tools that rely on stable electricity supply – and any disruption in power service could ultimately put news service delivery to a grinding halt.