Telecommunications company PLDT Inc. has expanded its use of renewable energy (RE) by sourcing power for 17 of its high-energy consuming facilities, including its main offices in Makati City.
Through an agreement with Meralco’s local retail electricity unit, MPower, PLDT will access RE from the Competitive Retail Electricity Market (CREM) for select facilities with a combined electricity demand of more than 15,000 kilowatts (kW) per month.
“Embracing RE is a strategic step in transforming how we power connectivity,” said Menardo “Butch” Jimenez, Jr., COO and head of Network at PLDT. “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.”
Among the facilities covered are the Ramon Cojuangco Building and the Makati General Office, both located in the Makati Central Business District, with a combined power demand of more than 2,200 kW per month.
The initiative is expected to reduce PLDT’s carbon emissions by about 18,000 tCO₂e metric tons annually. This supports the company’s decarbonization roadmap, which targets a 40% reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, using 2019 as the baseline year.
“As the business grows, we continuously seek efficiencies amid increasing power and resource requirements,” said Leo Gonzales, head of Property and Facilities Management at PLDT. “This transition to RE helps us in achieving these, while also reducing the environmental footprint of our operations.”
PLDT and its wireless arm Smart Communications Inc. have been collaborating with MPower to support Energy and Regulatory Commission (ERC) programs such as CREM and the Retail Aggregation Program (RAP). Under RAP, eligible users may secure supply contracts from licensed providers in line with the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001.
To date, PLDT and Smart have enrolled 153 sites in RAP, representing a combined demand of more than 2,500 kW per month. The companies aim to expand coverage to more sites in Visayas and Mindanao by the end of the year.
Melissa Vergel de Dios, chief sustainability officer of PLDT, said enterprise customers are looking for low-carbon products backed by climate-efficient technologies, while retail customers, particularly Millennials and Gen Z, are increasingly motivated by eco-conscious choices.
Alongside RE adoption, PLDT is upgrading its fixed network from copper to fiber, which requires less energy. Smart has also been using artificial intelligence to monitor network activity and optimize energy use across its cell sites nationwide.