Luzon-Mindoro line to boost grid
MANILA, Philippines—National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, operator of the country’s electricity superhighway, is looking to invest in a P5-billion Luzon-Mindoro interconnection project to ensure stable and adequate electricity supply in both the main grid and the island.
Documents from NGCP showed that the planned interconnection will provide the island of Mindoro with a more stable and reliable source of electricity from the Luzon main grid.
This, in turn, would boost economic growth in the island and even make the location of generating plant in the island viable.
Due to the small demand in Mindoro, the excess generating capacity can be exported to Luzon once the interconnection is completed.
According to NGCP, the project will connect Mindoro Island to mainland Luzon through the installation of a 25-kilometer submarine cable and 51 kms. of overhead lines, along with the associated cable terminal stations, voltage conditioning devices and additional switching facilities.
NGCP documents show that this project was supposed to be part of the second regulatory period spending and has been approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission.
However, the budget allocated for the project then was only P2 million, which would be enough to cover only the related preconstruction activities.
The additional investment in the project will then have to be filed before the ERC approval for implementation in the third regulatory period, covering 2011 to 2015.
But due to the company’s project prioritization program, the project was not included in the projects filed by NGCP under the third regulatory period.
NGCP also reasoned that in the absence of generation projects in Mindoro and due to the limited electricity demand in the island, the project can be deferred in the meantime and has instead been lined up as an “indicative project” for implementation between 2016 and 2020.
For 2011 to 2015, the NGCP plans to invest close to P90 billion in its capital expenditure projects.
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