City of Dreams Looks at P16M in Savings with Solar
Article by Babe Pañares
At the roof deck of City of Dreams Manila, right next to its greenhouse teeming with calamansi and herbs, the luxury integrated casino resort harvests the power of the sun to energize the property.
“Our chairman, Lawrence Ho, is very passionate as we move toward fully sustainable operations by 2030,” said COD Manila Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Kevin Benning during Monday's launch of the gaming resort’s P76-million, 1.2-megawatt solar power project. “Environmental sustainability is at the core of our business philosophy. We want to achieve a zero carbon footprint and zero waste, and encourage positive change,” he stressed.
Partnering with Spectrum, the renewable energy provider subsidiary of Manila Electric Co., also makes good business sense.
Benning said electricity generated from the project will supply 20 percent of COD Manila’s total power consumption, with a payback period of seven years.
Spectrum President and Meralco First VP and Head of Customer Retail Services Victor Genuino said COD Manila will save about three percent on its monthly bill with the newly-completed solar installation that has a 25-year product and performance warranty.
“They will save 1.7 million kilowatt-hours per year with the new solar power project. Assuming that the rate of electricity is P5 per kilowatt-hour since City of Dreams is under the Retail Electricity Supplier category, this would be equivalent to around P16 million in energy savings per year,” he explained.
For Benning, Spectrum is “the best partner in the Philippines” when it comes to solar power projects.
“If we are going to do this, we are going to do it right and we are going to do it with a partner who can get the job done. We signed the contract with them less than eight months ago, and it is already fully implemented. In my four years in the Philippines, I've never seen a project roll out in the time span that it was working with Spectrum,” he enthused.
The 3,120 solar panels have a guaranteed generation capacity of almost 2,000 megawatt-hours a year and will reduce the carbon emissions of the casino resort by over 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually.
To put this in perspective, Genuino said, the energy that can be produced by the rooftop installation is enough to power almost 1,000 households annually.
“This begs the question: Why did Meralco, a company whose core business comes from the distribution of electricity set up a subsidiary that effectively reduces consumption? Isn’t this counterintuitive? The simple answer is because our customers demanded it,” he stressed.
“Business partners, like City of Dreams Manila, are a prime example of this rising social involvement by integrating sustainability into their business DNA,” Genuino pointed out. "And Meralco is doing its part. By leveraging 116 years of expertise in the power industry, we are in a unique position to provide our commercial and industrial partners with strategic renewable solutions in building a more sustainable future.”
Benning said this early, the gaming resort is already looking at expanding its solar energy facility.
“It is already under review. We are evaluating our pool deck and the rest of our hotels for further solar panels. The evaluation will be done this year, and we are hoping it will be in the same magnitude. I hope it will still be with Spectrum,” he said.
Story originally posted on Power Club.
To learn more about Spectrum and its services, contact your Meralco Corporate Partners through corporatepartners@meralco.com.ph or call 16210.