NGCP sets ‘New Transmission Corridor’

Manila Bulletin 
By Myrna M. Velasco 
Published: July 15, 2013 
To address gridlocks in generated electricity being wheeled from the southern part of the Luzon grid, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) indicated that a “new transmission corridor” will soon be commissioned to underpin seamless dispatch of power plants in the area.
In an exclusive interview, lawyer Joseph Ferdinand Dechavez, senior adviser to NGCP president Henry T. Sy Jr. noted that the line is already “up for completion” and this could help solve some technical glitches being experienced in the system.
The new corridor, he said, will be the 100-kilometer Lumban-Bay 230-kilovolt transmission line stretching along Laguna province.
It required an investment of P600 million and it was among the projects approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in NGCP’s third regulatory reset under performance-based regulation.
Dechavez said the project’s implementation went through a “very tedious process” because it involved negotiations with roughly 500 landowners for right-of-way (ROW) acquisitions.
But once the new line is energized, it will unclog bottlenecks in the wheeling of capacities from the power plants which are heavily sited in the southern part of Luzon – including coal plants and the gas-fired facilities.
“We are just appealing to the public for patience as it will take time to improve our power grid. NGCP came in 2009, but as we assessed, we might need 10 years to really work on upgrading and improving our entire transmission system,” Dechavez said.
He explained that the carrying capacity of the main transmission line servicing the loads from south Luzon going to Metro Manila is just at 2,100 megawatts, “so we need this new corridor to prevent overloading in our lines.”
Up north, the company has also been implementing several transmission uprating projects – including that on the Santiago-Tuguegarao line to help ease “voltage problems” being experienced by their network in the area.
The company executive indicated that new transmission lines are similarly being built to prepare for the grid integration of the wind plants being developed by the Energy Development Corporation and Alternergy Wind One Corporation.   source