Shared data centers seen to help individuals, companies compute ‘true’ cost of power
DATA CENTERS shared by energy firms can leverage high-level computing to break down the price of electricity and improve consumer awareness of its true cost, an industry player said.
Energies PH, Inc. (EPHI) is looking to launch the Energy Community Digital Platform next year, which consists of Tier 3 colocation data centers for energy firms and use blockchain algorithms to accurately measure electricity consumption, cost, and efficiency, said Antonio A. Ver, EPHI chief executive officer.
“It’s a community of players in the industry that is striving to go digital and compute the real price of electricity,” Mr. Ver said about EPHI in an interview with BusinessWorld.
Their digital platform will help improve power price discovery, he said, as it will also allow people to verify their own meter readings via a website.
“For the benefit of everyone in the marketplace, nobody will be overpriced and you can know the correct amount of your electricity use,” he said.
“Consumers will be given access to the data produced by the data center,” Mr. Ver added.
He said he expects EPHI’s initiative to empower the ecosystem against the rising prices of electricity in the country, fostering awareness about how much one should actually pay for energy.
“Sellers and buyers will be very careful,” he said. “People will also be more comfortable buying renewable energy because they will pay right amount.”
Firms and small electric cooperative resellers can also have a reliable source of prices through shared data centers, he added.
EPHI’s platform includes initial sites in Baras, Rizal and Jaro, Iloilo, with plans to build three more in the second half of next year, including a data center complex in the Mambulao Special Economic Zone, Camarines Norte to cater South Luzon, Mr. Ver said.
He added that the company has already signed an agreement with a telco provider for the data centers’ broadband and fiber networks powered by dense wavelength-division multiplexing.
Peering agreements are in place with tech giants such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, which Mr. Ver said will allow them to strategically expand operations in the country.
He cited as an example of a scheme akin to EPHI’s Energy Community Digital Platform a partnership between Emirates Water and Electric Co. and Energy Exemplar, an optimization-based market simulation software provider for the energy sector, which was announced last week.
The collaboration aims to improve energy modeling capacity and integrated system planning through techno-economic cloud solutions, Mr. Ver noted. — Miguel Hanz L. Antivola
