Government will address transmission constraints–DOE

BY LENIE LECTURA – OCTOBER 12, 2022
from Business Mirror

The Department of Energy (DOE) is working closely with the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to address problems related to transmission constraints that hamper the development of renewable energy (RE) projects.

Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said it is important to identify specific segments where government is the reason for the delay in the completion of transmission projects.

“We are also working with NGCP to identify segment by segment the obstacles where government can actually help in facilitating the timely action including those involving local government units and the right-of-way issues,” said Lotilla.

For instance, Lotilla cited a transmission constraint from the power plants in Bataan to the load center in Metro Manila that should be immediately addressed. He said necessary intervention must be done to address this.

Moreover, Lotilla said RE projects will make a huge impact on addressing the power supply gap next year. However, some of these projects could not take off because of transmission constraints.  “That is why we are making sure that transmission facilities will be there and will not create another Negros island scenario wherein available RE power has been stranded in the island for the lack of sufficient transmission facilities that can bring them to the market,” he pointed out.

This problem is not unique to Negros. In Vietnam, they had also problems of overcapacity from RE sector and could not be brought to the market or places where they are needed. In fact, what they had to do was pay RE producers in order not to run. We don’t want that kind of scenario taking place in the country,” he said.

According to the DOE, the NGCP’s Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project (MVIP) has an overall completion rate of 65.05 percent as of June this year. The original target completion was set in December 2020, but this was moved to October this year.

The P52-billion interconnection project will supposedly link the Visayas and Mindanao grids via an HVDC system with a 450MW initial capacity.

“We have is a surplus in Mindanao, that’s why it’s important to finish the MVIP in order to bring the additional capacity to Visayas and eventually to Luzon. This is also an opportunity for us to rehab the Mindanao hydro plants at time when there is excess capacity in Mindanao,” he said.

For the Visayas grid, Lotilla said there would be additional capacity that will free up capacity from Negros and Panay to the rest of Cebu once the following projects are completed: Stage 1 (Negros-Cebu interim) by December this year, Stage 2 (Cebu upgrading by October this year; and Stage 3 Cebu-Negros-Panay by June 2023.