ERC approves NGCP’s P13-billion Pasay substation

By Lenie Lectura -October 1, 2019
from Business Mirror

THE Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) approved the application of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to pursue its P13-billion substation within the Reclamation Area in Pasay City.

The Pasay substation involves a new drawdown substation that will have an initial capacity of two 300 MVA (Mega Volt Amp) transformers which will be connected to the Las Piñas 230-kV (kilovolt)  substation. The project will be funded through the NGCP’s Internal Cash Generated (ICG) fund.

“The new NGCP substation in Pasay will provide solution to the overloading problem and will allow more room for capacity expansion in the future,” ERC Chairman and CEO Agnes VST Devanadera said.

The NGCP proposed the development of the Pasay 230-kV substation because the Las Piñas substation could no longer be expanded due to space constraint.  The Pasay substation’s additional equipment will cater to the future connections of the Manila-Navotas substation project, and the proposed Bataan-Cavite/Metro Manila Line Project.

“The Pasay 230-kV substation, upon full operation, is expected to relieve the loading conditions of the Las Piñas 230-kV substation, allow the service of additional capacity to the southern part of Metro Manila, and further enhance the integrity of the transmission system of the said region,” said NGCP.

Under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira), the NGCP is mandated to improve and expand its transmission facilities, consistent with the Grid Code and the Transmission Development Plan (TDP) to adequately serve generation companies, distribution utilities and suppliers that require transmission service and/or ancillary services through the transmission system.

“This NGCP Pasay Substation Project will help address the country’s growing power demand in terms of ensuring grid security, reliability and power quality,” Devanadera added.

NGCP said this is the most feasible way to deal with the load growth in Metro Manila, to relieve the heavy loading of the transformer at the Las Piñas 230-kV substation and to provide for more room for future capacity expansion.

The Social Security System (SSS) and the National Transmission Corp. (Transco) earlier opposed NGCP’s application.

SSS alleged that NGCP only needs 2,000 square meters for its project, in contrast to the 60,872 square meters which NGCP sought to be expropriated from SSS for the same project.

Transco opposed the project because, in its view, the NGCP has acted in bad faith in exercising its delegated power of eminent domain against a government-owned property and in misleading the court by not divulging the actual area of the property needed for its substation project.

The ERC said it took note of the opposition submitted by SSS and Transco. However, the subject expropriation proceeding of NGCP against SSS is beyond the jurisdiction of the commission.

“The application only covers the approval of the Pasay 230-kV substation project of NGCP. Nevertheless, it bears stressing that in this application, NGCP only included the acquisition of a 2,000-square-meter lot for the Pasay 230-kV substation project. Hence, the commission approved the acquisition of the 2,000-square-meter lot as proposed,” said ERC in its 40-page decision.