ERC okays NGCP petition for Visayas power project

Business Mirror Written by Paul Anthony A. Isla / Reporter

TUESDAY, 21 SEPTEMBER 2010 13:03

THE Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has provisionally approved the petition of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to go ahead with the Visayas Substation Project 1, but its assets “may be subjected to future reclassification and shall be further optimized during NGCP’s reset process for the third regulatory period.” The NGCP said it sought the authority of the ERC to implement the Visayas Substation Project 1 to improve service and that it involves the expansion and upgrading of protection and control systems of the Talavera, Ormoc and Kabankalan substations.  The firm added the project is also intended to address the projected growth in power demand in the major load centers Cebu, Leyte and Negros Islands.  The NGCP is also seeking the ERC’s approval for its Dasmariñas extra high-voltage substation project that involves the construction of a 600-megavolt amperes additional substation capacity to be able to maintain the provision for single outage or N-1 contingency during the maximum dispatch of the 1,200-megawatt (MW) Ilijan natural-gas plants, 600-MW Quezon coal-power plant, and the Pagbilao coal-fired power plant. The grid company earlier committed to spend about P10 billion for the completion of its priority transmission-line projects lined up this year. The NGCP is composed of the State Grid of China Corp., with 40 percent; Calaca High Power Corp. of the Coyuito Group, 30 percent; and Monte Oro of Henry Sy Jr.’s One Taipan Holdings, 30 percent.