The Meralco Power Academy (MPA) has expanded its industry-academe initiative to Mindanao, engaging over 1,000 engineering students from Mindanao State University–General Santos (MSU-GenSan) in a lecture series focused on grid modernization, digital transformation, and evolving power sector demands.

Held on April 15, 2026 at the MSU-GenSan campus, the “PowerConvos” session forms part of Meralco’s broader push to build a future-ready talent pipeline amid accelerating changes in the Philippine energy landscape, including distribution utility modernization and system resilience upgrades.

Meralco executives and technical specialists discussed ongoing shifts in utility operations, particularly the integration of automation systems, data-driven grid management, and cyber-secure infrastructure—capabilities increasingly seen as critical as the country scales up renewable energy and strengthens grid stability.

Meralco Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and MPA President Ronnie L. Aperocho, an MSU alumnus, underscored the shared nature of grid challenges across regions.

“While our operations are primarily in Luzon, the challenges we face are the same challenges the country’s grid is confronting – including here in Mindanao. Over the past few years, Meralco has been deliberately revolutionizing distribution utility operations—deploying advanced distribution automation up to the grid-edge, big data analytics and other cutting-edge, resilient and cyber-secure systems and platforms,” Aperocho said.

The session also highlighted how utilities are reshaping customer-facing operations through digital platforms as part of broader service modernization efforts.

“Our customers are changing – they demand higher-than-ever levels of personalized service. By adopting their perspective to understand their pain points, Meralco embarked on a digital transformation,” Meralco Senior Vice President and Head of DU Subsidiaries and Strategic Partnerships Ferdinand O. Geluz said.

“This led to several customer-journey improvement programs to provide simple, fast, and convenient touchpoints for customer interaction – including the My Meralco App, which streamlines service application, billing, payment, outage restoration, among others,” he added. 

MPA said the program is designed to bridge academic learning with industry practice, exposing students to real-world case studies, engineering applications, and career pathways in the energy sector.

The MSU-GenSan engagement marks an expansion of a partnership formalized in June 2025 through a memorandum of agreement aimed at strengthening industry-academe collaboration in energy education and training.

As part of the initiative, Meralco also turned over laboratory-grade equipment to MSU-GenSan to support hands-on learning, including a 34.5 kV switchgear and protection system assembly, battery charger, insulation resistance tester, digital clamp multimeter, and digital multimeter.

 “Partnerships like this do more than bridge the gap between theory and practice—they are the foundry of the future. By fusing academic rigor with industry excellence, we ignite the sparks of innovation that will light the way for generations to come,” MSU-GenSan Chancellor Shidik Abantas said.

MPA said such initiatives are intended to support long-term workforce development for the Philippine power sector, as utilities and developers increasingly compete for engineers skilled in modern grid systems, digital operations, and energy transition technologies.

As distribution utilities accelerate digital grid upgrades and expand talent pipelines outside Metro Manila, what do these industry-academe partnerships signal for the readiness of the Philippines’ future energy workforce—especially in Mindanao?

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