ERC approves first phase of Leyte-Mindanao project

Business Mirror
THURSDAY, 20 OCTOBER 2011 19:24 PAUL ANTHONY A. ISLA / REPORTER


THE National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), the country’s sole power-lines concessionaire, will now be able to begin updating its feasibility study for the Leyte-Mindanao interconnection project.


The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has recently approved the first phase of the NGCP’s planned P24-billion Leyte-Mindanao interconnection project.


The approval, according to ERC, will now allow NGCP to proceed with its P91.42-million study on the Leyte-Mindanao project, which involves the preparation of an updated project feasibility study, conduct of a transmission route survey, and hiring of consultancy services.


“The LMIP-Phase I will redound to the benefit of NGCP’s consumers in terms of continuous, reliable and efficient power supply as mandated by Republic Act 9136, or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2011 [Section 2]. Declaration of Power-[b] to ensure the quality, reliability, security and affordability of the supply of electric power,” ERC said.


The ERC said the completion of the first phase of the Leyte-Mindanao project is a precondition to the implementation of the second phase that involves the physical construction of the proposed Leyte-Mindanao grid interconnection.


The second phase, as NGCP proposed, involves linking the Visayas and Mindanao grids through 23 kilometers of submarine cables spurring from NGCP’s Leyte up to Surigao substations.


The ERC said the project will benefit the national power grid because it will optimize the operations of hydropower plants in Mindanao; improve the reliability of the Mindanao power system; optimize standby and spinning reserves due to sharing of reserve and ensure exchange of energy during periods of shortfall or surplus of power supply between the Visayas and Mindanao and possibly Luzon power grids.