Saturday, August 27, 2011

Power grid operator ready for renewables

Manila Times.net


THE National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said it can accommodate the necessary transmission facilities that would connect renewable energy projects to the grid.

Cynthia Alabanza, NGCP spokesperson, said the company is ready to put up the needed transmission lines and related facilities.

“We’ve been working non-stop to fulfill our mandate of expanding the transmission facilities. Currently, our energy highways are wide enough to accommodate all the available capacity. NGCP is ready for renewable energy,” she said.

NGCP is the private company operating the country’s power transmission lines—the facilities that deliver electricity produced by power plants to distribution utilities nationwide—under a concession deal with the government.

NGCP spends around P10 billion a year to upgrade the country’s transmission network.

The company earlier conducted a technical study on the potential impact of renewable energy sources to the grid, the result of which will determine the number of green power projects that would qualify for tariff incentive from the government.

Renewable energy generating units are powered by location-specific energy sources, which make the availability of generated capacity inherently variable, erratic, and uncontrollable although they are relatively cleaner and more environmentally sound than conventional power plants.

These “green” facilities are expected to flourish in the near future as the Department of Energy is set to wrap up its review of the remaining applications for renewable energy projects in the next two weeks.

The Energy Regulatory Commission is already conducting hearings on the feed-in-tariff incentive or the cost charged per kilowatt-hour for each renewable energy source.

NGCP is a consortium of local investors led by SM group’s Henry Sy Jr. and its technical partner State Grid of China Corp
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