NGCP to invest P463B in transmission projects

By Jordeene B. Lagare – November 21, 2019
from The Manila Times

THE National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) will invest about P463 billion over the next 10 years to enhance the country’s transmission network.

In a statement on Wednesday, the grid operator said the projects, outlined in its transmission development plan (TDP), are intended to improve transmission backbones and alternative transmission corridors, and to develop resiliency policies for power transmission facilities.

NGCP is set to complete more projects such as the 500-kilovolt (kV) Taguig and Marilao substation projects intended to cater to the load growth of Metro Manila; the Cebu–Bohol 230-kV interconnection project to accommodate the load growth and provide reliability of Bohol island; and the Nabas–Caticlan–Boracay interconnection project to accommodate the load growth and beef up reliability of systems in Boracay island.

Other projects in the pipeline include the Visayas voltage improvement project to improve the region’s power quality; the Mindanao 230k-kV backbone project to upgrade the region’s transmission capacity and secure the reliability of power transmission services throughout the island; the Mindanao substation upgrading project to increase the substation capacity and improve power quality; and the Kabacan 138-kV substation project to strengthen power reliability in Southwestern Mindanao area.

NGCP is on track to complete the Mindanao–Visayas interconnection project (MVIP), considered the largest energy infrastructure in Philippine history, which will complete the link between the nation’s power grids, allowing electricity between the major islands to be shared, and ensuring the reliability and stability of the grid.

“We are dedicated to completing the MVIP by December 2020 not only because we committed this, but also because interconnection among the three main grids is long overdue. The interconnection of Visayas and Mindanao was first proposed by government in 1984, but it was private entity NGCP, which brought the government’s decades old plan from the feasibility stage to the implementation and completion stage,” it added.

Since its inception in 2009, NGCP has invested P151 billion into the government’s transmission system. It has installed a total of 5,626 transmission structures, 2,472 circuit-kilometers of transmission lines, 18 new substations, 63 upgraded substations and an additional 15,634 megavolt ampere (MVA) of transformer capacity.