Your Business Can Cut Down on Electricity Costs With One Simple Step

When you’re at the helm of a company, you do whatever it takes to make sure it runs as efficiently as possible. This requires you to keep an eye on details that others overlook—the little things that go a long way. And sometimes, the only way to see these little things is to constantly ask yourself, “Is there a better way to do this?”

This very question led Insular Life Assurance Co. Ltd. to take a crucial step in its operations, which in turn would yield roughly P50 million in savings over the span of two years. It’s a straightforward fix that businesses of any scale can learn from and apply.

Back in 2000, Insular Life started operations in the Insular Life Corporate Center, or the ILCC—a pair of high-rise, state-of the-art buildings in Alabang, which now serve as the company’s headquarters.

By 2015, however, the ILCC was running on 6.2 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of power—the yearly equivalent of running 25,000 homes. The company was spending too much paying for electricity. It was a problem that Hector Caunan, first vice president and head of the real property division of Insular Life, set out to fix.

Caunan explored possible solutions with the very same company that charged the bill: Meralco. Meralco, through its energy solutions subsidiary MSERV, was more than happy to work with Insular Life to boost energy efficiency and minimize cost.

The process started with an energy audit. Through a relationship manager and a team of technical experts, MSERV evaluated the ILCC and identified several ways to run it as efficiently, but without the soaring electric bill.

Of utmost concern was the ILCC’s air-conditioning system, which constituted about 60 percent of the electricity bill. MSERV retrofitted the air-conditioning system with energy-saving technologies. Its team worked closely with Insular Life to install a variable-flow chilled water system, then replaced the oil-lubricated chillers with magnetic oil-free chillers. To operate the new equipment as efficiently as possible, they acquired and installed a digital monitoring system. Once everything was in place, ILCC’s energy consumption dropped to 2.8 million kWh—or a whopping 53 percent lower—in 2016. It saved Insular Life roughly P24 million that year.

The solution pretty much sustained itself. The following year, the two towers’ energy consumption fell even lower to 2.5 million kWh, resulting in a total savings of P26 million and placing the company on an even shorter path to achieving a return on investment on the ILCC.

See how the process went:

More than fixing an office’s air-conditioning system, MSERV helps businesses with bespoke energy-saving solutions, tailor-fit to specific needs and situations. But always, optimum energy efficiency is the ultimate goal—a goal shared by Meralco and its clients.

Learn more about the benefits of a more energy-efficient business by visiting the Meralco Power Ideas website. Reach out to a Meralco Relationship Manager to find out how you can arrange for an energy audit.