By Lenie Lectura
- October 1, 2019
THE Energy Regulatory Commission
(ERC) approved the application of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines
(NGCP) to pursue its P13-billion substation within the Reclamation Area in
Pasay City.
The Pasay substation involves a new
drawdown substation that will have an initial capacity of two 300 MVA (Mega
Volt Amp) transformers which will be connected to the Las Piñas 230-kV
(kilovolt) substation. The project will be funded through the NGCP’s
Internal Cash Generated (ICG) fund.
“The new NGCP substation in Pasay
will provide solution to the overloading problem and will allow more room for
capacity expansion in the future,” ERC Chairman and CEO Agnes VST Devanadera
said.
The NGCP proposed the development of
the Pasay 230-kV substation because the Las Piñas substation could no longer be
expanded due to space constraint. The Pasay substation’s additional
equipment will cater to the future connections of the Manila-Navotas substation
project, and the proposed Bataan-Cavite/Metro Manila Line Project.
“The Pasay 230-kV substation, upon
full operation, is expected to relieve the loading conditions of the Las Piñas
230-kV substation, allow the service of additional capacity to the southern
part of Metro Manila, and further enhance the integrity of the transmission
system of the said region,” said NGCP.
Under the Electric Power Industry
Reform Act (Epira), the NGCP is mandated to improve and expand its transmission
facilities, consistent with the Grid Code and the Transmission Development Plan
(TDP) to adequately serve generation companies, distribution utilities and
suppliers that require transmission service and/or ancillary services through
the transmission system.
“This NGCP Pasay Substation Project
will help address the country’s growing power demand in terms of ensuring grid
security, reliability and power quality,” Devanadera added.
NGCP said this is the most feasible
way to deal with the load growth in Metro Manila, to relieve the heavy loading
of the transformer at the Las Piñas 230-kV substation and to provide for more
room for future capacity expansion.
The Social Security System (SSS) and
the National Transmission Corp. (Transco) earlier opposed NGCP’s
application.
SSS alleged that NGCP only needs
2,000 square meters for its project, in contrast to the 60,872 square meters
which NGCP sought to be expropriated from SSS for the same project.
Transco opposed the project because,
in its view, the NGCP has acted in bad faith in exercising its delegated power
of eminent domain against a government-owned property and in misleading the
court by not divulging the actual area of the property needed for its
substation project.
The ERC said it took note of the
opposition submitted by SSS and Transco. However, the subject expropriation
proceeding of NGCP against SSS is beyond the jurisdiction of the commission.
“The application only covers the
approval of the Pasay 230-kV substation project of NGCP. Nevertheless, it bears
stressing that in this application, NGCP only included the acquisition of a
2,000-square-meter lot for the Pasay 230-kV substation project. Hence, the
commission approved the acquisition of the 2,000-square-meter lot as proposed,”
said ERC in its 40-page decision.
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