At least P132.1 billion worth of interconnection projects are being constructed to continue improvements in the country’s power transmission.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said company said the biggest among several interconnection projects currently in the works is the P51.7-billion Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project, slated for completion in December 2020 and will finally unify the grids in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
NGCP is also developing the P47.8-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 ongoing developments, pre-construction activities are underway for the P8.5-billion Nabas-Caticlan-Boracay transmission line project. The P2.4-billion Panay-Guimaras 138kV transmission line is also in the pre-construction stage.
Another P1.9 billion is being spent for the Cebu-Lapu Lapu 230kV transmission line project which is currently undergoing survey and right-of-way activities to maintain the continuous transmission of power towards major load centers in Mandaue and Mactan.
Meanwhile, the P19.8-billion Cebu-Bohol 230kV Interconnection Project is being constructed to address overloading issues and enable sharing of power between the two islands.
“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,” NGCP said in a statement.
“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,” it added.
Earlier, the company announced that an estimated total investment worth
P463 billion is programmed for the next 10 years.
NGCP, a privately owned corporation, operates, maintains and develops the country’s power grid. It transmits electricity through interconnected systems of transmission lines, towers, substations and related assets.
In 2009, after a public bidding, the National Transmission Corp., the state-run firm which operates and manages the power transmission system, turned over the management and operations to NGCP, but ownership of all transmission assets remains with the government.
