In pursuit of its goal of building One Grid Philippines, power transmission operator NGCP continues to embark on major interconnection projects to realize this vision.
With over 7,600 islands in the Philippine archipelago, energizing and connecting major islands to the grid was a challenge that confronted NGCP when it took over from the government. Equipped with a vision of a fully interconnected and integrated power grid, and access to the state-of-the-art technology, NGCP is well on its way towards this goal.
Among the first interconnection projects completed by NGCP is the PhP 6.1 billion Cebu-Negros-Panay Stage 1 submarine cable component which increases the transfer capacity of the existing corridor. A second phase of this project is an additional submarine cable for N-1 contingency which will enable the transmission grid to withstand a major system disturbance with minimal disruption to the system between Negros and Panay islands.
Several interconnection projects are currently in the works, like the PhP 47.8 billion Stages 2 and 3 of the Cebu-Negros-Panay Interconnection Project which will establish a 230kV backbone to accommodate the transmission of excess power from Panay and Negros towards the rest of Visayas.
To address the growing demand in Boracay Island and provide additional capacity to support the ongoing developments, pre-construction activities are now underway for the PhP 8.5 billion Nabas-Caticlan-Boracay transmission line project. The PhP 2.4 billion Panay-Guimaras 138kV transmission line is also in the pre-construction stage.
To maintain the continuous transmission of power towards the major load centers in Mandaue and Mactan during N-1 condition, the PhP 1.9 billion Cebu-Lapu Lapu 230kV transmission line project is currently being undertaken, with survey and right-of-way activities ongoing. Another major interconnection is the PhP 19.8 billion Cebu-Bohol 230kV Interconnection Project, which, upon completion, will address overloading issues and enable sharing of power between the two islands, especially the growing demand in Bohol and will eventually form part of the Leyte-Bohol 230kV loop system.
To support the government’s vision to have a unified Philippine grid, construction is ongoing for the PhP 51.7 billion Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project, slated for completion in December 2020.
Other future interconnection projects of NGCP include the Batangas-Mindoro Interconnection Project, Laray-Cordova 230kV Transmission Line project, Bataan-Cavite Interconnection Project, Bataan-Pasay Interconnection Project, and the Palawan-Mindoro Interconnection Project
“The only way to forward this vision of a fully interconnected and integrated transmission system is to keep investing in the transmission grid. These projects will greatly benefit the country, energizing the entire archipelago even up to the farthest islands. This will also prepare the entire Philippine grid for the integration to the proposed ASEAN Power Grid, promoting power-sharing and optimization of generation capacity within the region,” NGCP stated.
NGCP is a Filipino-led, privately owned company in charge of operating, maintaining, and developing the country’s power grid, led by majority shareholders Henry Sy, Jr. and Robert Coyiuto, Jr.