National Grid earmarks P80b for transmission projects

by Alena Mae S. Flores – March 12, 2017 at 08:08 pm

from Manila Standard Today

Grid operator National Grid Corp. of the Philippines is allocating P80 billion for its transmission development projects from 2016 to 2020.

National Grid division head for research and special studies division of the transmission planning department Vicente Loria, at a seminar sponsored held the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines, said some projects were pending with the Energy Regulatory Commission.

“I think the total is already P80 billion approximately. Most of them are already approved but (for) some projects, the approval is still pending. But the total is approximately P80 billion,” Loria said.

He said the projects were subject to ERC evaluation, including the construction costs.

“Because sometimes we submit a certain project, with this amount, and then this amount will be reduced… So the final amount is the result of ERC approval,” Loria said.

He said the NGCP would submit the planned Visayas-Mindanao interconnection project to the ERC in May, from the previously announced target of April.

National Grid earlier identified the most viable route—beginning in Cebu and terminating in Dipolog—for the Visayas and Mindanao interconnection.

The project, which will unify the three grids and allow power sharing, is the biggest and most ambitious to be undertaken by the company to date.

The project, estimated to cost P52 billion, has three components, a 92-kilometer submarine cable and overhead lines totaling 214 kilometers.

“The target is to connect Visayas with Mindanao by 2020… Submission of the Visayas and Mindanao interconnection will be in May. And then it will take several months before the ERC decides… based on our experience…,” he said.

National Grid has built 2,472 circuit-kilometers of transmission lines since taking over the operations to manage the country’s transmission network in 2009.