As the preferred partner of top local power and telecommunication companies, the Meralco Industrial Engineering Services Corporation (MIESCOR) plays a significant role in nation-building. It provides various services such as Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) services across power infrastructure, renewable energy projects, electromechanical works, telecommunication infrastructure, and general construction.
The clients that MIESCOR serves include big companies like the Manila Electric Company (Meralco), the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), SMC Global Power, Aboitiz Power, and AC Energy to name a few. The list also includes other Independent Power Producers, distribution utilities, and electric cooperatives, showing that MIESCOR caters to just about the entirety of the energy industry.
Through its Distribution Utility Services (DUS) and Miescor Builders, Inc. (MBI), MIESCOR has provided support and helped Meralco in improving, operating, and maintaining its distribution utility services, through engineering and allied services, design services, facilities inspection support, metering, sub-transmission line maintenance, transmission line testing, and substation maintenance among others.
In addition, MIESCOR provides manpower services to Meralco and its subsidiaries through Miescor Logistics, Inc. (MLI) through facilities and buildings management, warehouse and inventory management of the various Meralco sectors, and logistics/transport services of the One Meralco fleet.
The MIESCOR group is powered by more than 8,000 employees, the majority of which helps reinforce the reliability of services that the One Meralco group offers to its customers.
MIESCOR holds a PCAB ‘AAAA’ license, the highest category granted by the Construction Industry Association of the Philippines (CIAP), for General Engineering; while MBI and MLI hold PCAB ‘AAA’ and PCAB ‘AA’ respectively. MIESCOR and its subsidiaries have been certified by TUV Rheinland for meeting global standards – ISO 9001:2015 (Quality Management Systems). MIESCOR has also been granted by the same body with ISO 14001:2004 (Environmental Management) and ISO 45001: 2018 (Occupational Safety and Health) certifications.
Enabler for nationwide electrification
Across the country, MIESCOR has completed over 660 kilometers (km) of 500-kilovolt (kV) transmission and distribution lines; more than 1400 km of 230-kV lines; over 1600-km of 138-kV lines; 130-km of 115kV lines; and over 315 km of 69-kV lines, among others.
It has 29 projects in the pipeline, namely services for GN Power Dinginin, SMC Global’s Mariveles Power, Meralco’s Alagao and Balagtas substations, as well as several priority projects identified by the NGCP such as the Mindanao Substation Upgrading Project, the Mindanao Transmission Backbone Project (substation portion), and the Cebu-Negros-Panay Stage III (substation project) in the Visayas.
In addition to these, MIESCOR recently bagged new EPC projects from SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. and Fort Pilar Energy Inc. for their Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) interconnection facility projects in Laguna, Leyte and Cagayan de Oro, and Zamboanga, respectively, as well as two new contracts from AC Energy Group, namely the 230kV transmission line project in Zambales from Santa Cruz Solar Energy Inc. and a substation project in Ilocos Norte from Bayog Wind Power Corporation.
Recently, MIESCOR was also tapped by flywheel energy storage company, Amber Kinetics, to lead the EPC of its flywheel testing area which shall increase their flywheel testing capability, giving them an important boost to ramp up flywheel production.
Accelerating and enhancing connectivity
Growing demand for digital services requires a rapid expansion in the telecommunications infrastructure and services sectors, and MIESCOR has been an active enabler in this development. At present, the Company provides design, build, installation, repair, and maintenance services for telco companies such as PLDT, Globe, Converge, Radius, and Sky Cable.
Radius Telecoms, a new player in the broadband industry offering RED Fiber broadband, engaged MIESCOR for its aerial and underground cabling services, as well as the construction of telecom nodes where fiber networks are connected.
MIESCOR is also Radius’ end-to-end service provider, building Fiber-to-the-Home Infrastructure/Optical Distribution Network and Subscriber Installation & Maintenance Services for Internet and IPTV services to RED Fiber customers.
For Converge, MIESCOR has been tapped to build and expand the Fiber-to-the-Home Infrastructure/Optical Distribution Network in highly urbanized areas, such as Makati, Quezon City, and Pasig, alongside several areas in Caloocan, Bulacan, Cavite, and Laguna.
Meanwhile, Globe sought MIESCOR’s subscriber line installation and repair services which effectively enable Globe customers to perform work-from-home, online schooling, and e-commerce setups in areas of Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, and Valenzuela; as well as its Fiber-to-the-Home Infrastructure/Optical Distribution Network services in Bulacan which further beef up Globe’s fiber presence.
Similar services are provided by MIESCOR for Provisioning Requests and Warranty Assurance Requests of PLDT Customers in Manila and Cavite, while its Fiber-to-the-Home Infrastructure/Optical Distribution Networks services are upcoming.
For Sky Cable, MIESCOR built several network nodes for its Hybrid Fiber Coaxial Networks in Malabon, Pasig, Caloocan, and Manila.
Through Meralco’s support in accelerating the telecommunications rollout of mobile network operators, MIESCOR installs micro cell sites on electric poles and upgraded streetlights. MIESCOR entered the passive telecommunications tower infrastructure (PTTI) space as one of the Department of Information and Communications Technology’s registered Independent Tower Companies (ITC). As an ITC, MIESCOR will work together with the mobile network operators in building and operating PTTIs at locations where mobile service needs to be improved. With this move, MIESCOR strengthened its thrust in being the catalyst for better and broader connectivity in the country.
New segments offer products and services for power and telco companies
Established in 2020, the Utility Attachment Management group of MIESCOR has already accomplished a significant output from its contract with Meralco’s Foreign Attachment Team. The UAM group ensures the safety and integrity of foreign attachments (mostly fiber cable and lines) in Meralco poles, and provides efficient evaluation and audit of request-to-attach (RTA) applications.
Aside from this, it also offers services such as pole inventory and pole clearing operations, alley-arm installation, survey of unauthorized attachments, and correction of low sagging or bundling cables for Meralco.
Being an EPC company created the opportunity for MIESCOR Trading, a new business unit distributing a wide array of electrical supplies and equipment from world-class manufacturers and suppliers to provide efficient energy solutions and high-quality products for substation, transmission, and distribution systems to Meralco, its subsidiaries, and other clients in the energy and power sector.
Its product line includes connectors, surge and lightning arresters, kWh meter, insulators, steel tower/poles, and smart poles, circuit breakers, disconnectors, cables, distribution transformers, reclosers, alley arms, splicing and terminating kits, relays, protection panels, capacitors and banks, underground and low voltage switch gears, and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI)—from its partners NARI, SeoChang, TE Connectivity, BenBro, Eaton, PANCAB, Trade Edition, Hansei, Midel, and Aclara.
Sustaining growth towards 2023
Resiliency towards recovery became MIESCOR’s battle cry last year—mainly as it took off from the setbacks the company experienced in the previous years and as it faced the challenges of a global pandemic.
Given its extensive history and track record, MIESCOR developed its medium-term plan for the years 2021-2023 with the goal of sustaining its growth as it is about to celebrate its 50-year milestone.
Engineering Execution Excellence towards scaling to greater heights and reaching the summit in its golden year is MIESCOR’s goal. In achieving this, the Company endeavors to focus on strengthening the core business by supporting Meralco in its EPC projects while sustaining a portfolio of projects from reliable clients in the power, and renewable energy sectors; supporting the growth of the telecommunications business; forming a new subsidiary that will be the official tower infrastructure development arm of the group; expanding services and contracts of the DUS, UAM, and trading business within One Meralco Group and extending best practices to other DUs and cooperatives; and growing the logistics and construction subsidiaries.
“MIESCOR remains committed to providing dependable, reliable, and world-class end-to-end engineering services to power and telecommunications to propel growth, effect change, and improve the lives of every Filipino. This is a commitment we intend to operationalize as we forge ahead to meet the challenges of the new business environment,” said MIESCOR President and Meralco Networks Head Ronnie L. Aperocho.