PLDT Makati Main Offices, High-Energy Consumption Facilities Now Powered With Renewable Energy

PLDT Inc. (PLDT), the Philippines’ leading fully integrated telecommunications network, continues to expand the adoption of greening solutions as it increases renewable energy (RE) sourcing for 17 facilities, including its main offices in Makati City.

Under its agreement with Meralco’s local retail electricity unit, MPower, PLDT gains access to an increasing amount of RE from the Competitive Retail Electricity Market (CREM) for select high-power-consuming facilities with a combined electricity demand of more than 15,000 kilowatt (kW) per month.

Included in these facilities are PLDT’s main offices at the Ramon Cojuangco Building and Makati General Office, which are located at the heart of the Makati Central Business District and have an aggregate power demand of approximately 2,200 kW per month.

This move is projected to initially reduce PLDT’s carbon emissions by around 18,000 tCO₂e metric tons per year, supporting its decarbonization roadmap that targets a 40% reduction of Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 with a 2019 baseline.

“Embracing RE is a strategic step in transforming how we power connectivity. As our customers – whether large enterprises or individual consumers – are becoming more conscious of sustainability and increasingly concerned about their environmental impact, we are evolving alongside and building a network that is not only reliable and far-reaching but also aligned with the vision for a greener future.” said Menardo “Butch” Jimenez, Jr., PLDT Chief Operating Officer and Head of Network.

Meanwhile, Leo Gonzales, PLDT Property and Facilities Management Head, said, “As the business grows, we continuously seek efficiencies amid increasing power and resource requirements. This transition to RE helps us in achieving these, while also reducing the environmental footprint of our operations.”

PLDT and its wireless unit Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) have been working with MPower to support the various programs of the Energy and Regulatory Commission (ERC). These include participation in the CREM and the Retail Aggregation Program (RAP), which may be secured by eligible end-users through Retail Supply Contracts (RSCs) from licensed or authorized suppliers, by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 or the Republic Act 9136.

Earlier, PLDT and Smart registered 153 sites into the RAP, which enables access to RE for facilities with a combined energy demand of over 2,500 kW per month. By year-end, PLDT and Smart are eyeing to expand further RAP coverage to more sites in Visayas and Mindanao.

Melissa Vergel de Dios, PLDT Chief Sustainability Officer, said, “As PLDT prepares to mark its 100th year in 2028, the continuing integration of RE into our power mix supports our goal of ensuring that our business existence extends into the future and responds to the evolving expectations of our stakeholders.”

Vergel de Dios explained that increasingly, Enterprise customers are seeking low-carbon emitting products and those that are backed by climate-efficient technologies and modes of operations, while retail customers who are Millennials and Gen Zs appear to be more and more driven by eco-consciousness.

Alongside the use of RE, PLDT is continuously upgrading its fixed network from copper to fiber optic cable, which generates less heat and no longer requires cooling systems, as compared to previous technologies. Smart has also been leveraging the use of Artificial Intelligence to track network activity and optimize the energy use of its cell sites across the country.

These efforts represent the PLDT Group’s continuing contribution to the country’s green energy transition and support to the global ambition to achieve Net Zero by 2050.