PLDT’s newest Hyperscaler Data Center, to be built in Sta. Rosa Laguna, assures future clients of maximum operational uptime with the construction of a Meralco substation on-site.

Announced during the recent groundbreaking ceremony of VITRO Sta. Rosa, Meralco officials led by Atty. Ray Espinosa, president and CEO of Meralco, said that the facility will directly supply the data center’s power requirements, ensuring higher levels of system reliability, and a more efficient delivery of electricity.

The Meralco substation will be custom-designed to fit the power requirements of the VITRO Hyperscaler data center. It will have the capability to scale up and accommodate the growing power demands over time, through the installation of additional power banks, and will enable the facility to draw redundant power directly from the grid. This set-up will also provide additional resiliency and flexibility to the data center, exceeding the global standard requirements of the TIA942 Rated 3 design.

PLDT breaks ground for hyperscaler data center in Sta. Rosa
PLDT to build telco-neutral ‘hyperscaler’ data center facility in PH

“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 colocation services,” said Jojo Gendrano, FVP and head of Enterprise Business Group of PLDT and Smart and chief commercial officer, ePLDT.

Innovations

Meralco is the largest private electric distribution utility in the Philippines and the leading firm in terms of power infrastructure. It has also been making strides in innovating its services and operations to support the requirements of its customers and partners.

“PLDT VITRO’s hyperscale data center is the biggest that we have received, requiring at least 54MW of power,” said Ronnie Aperocho, SVP and head of Networks, Meralco. “Given this scale and the stringent requirements, we deemed it appropriate to provide it with a redundant supply coming from our 115kV sub-transmission backbone, which is located just across the road from this facility. Meralco will build a switching station on-site which will allow the redundant 115kV sources to provide continuous power to the data center even during an outage of one source.”

The new Sta. Rosa Data Center will be the 11th site of ePLDT’s network of globally certified, carrier-neutral colocation facilities spread across the country. Once operational, ePLDT will stand as the owner and operator of five out of the six TIA942 Rated 3 certified facilities in the country.

VITRO colocation clients also benefit from its IP ecosystem with the biggest aggregated local data traffic of 1Tbps through the Philippine Internet Exchange (PHIX) and Vitro Internet Exchange (VIX) combined.

“Apart from building world-class hyperscale data centers such as this, we’re also investing in international subsea cables, domestic fiber roll-outs, and our 5G mobile network to complement such data centers,” said Al Panlilio, president and CEO, PLDT and Smart. “All these are driven by our singular mission of making this country the next digital destination in Southeast Asia.”