PRIVATELY owned National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) targets to invest up to P463 billion in the next 10 years to improve the country’s power transmission backbone, it said on Wednesday to mark the 10th year of its franchise.

“Our projects, which will be worth P188 billion by end of 2019, and those in the pipeline, are meticulously planned by our engineers and updated year after year with careful consideration for the needs of every single area in the country,” the company said in a statement.

It said the projects in the pipeline, which include alternative transmission corridors and the development of resiliency policies for power transmission facilities, are detailed in its transmission development plan.

NGCP, which holds a 50-year franchise that started in 2009, said it is on-track to complete the Mindanao-Visayas interconnection project (MVIP), which is considered as the largest energy infrastructure in the history of the country. It previously placed its investment in the project at P52 billion.

“We are dedicated to completing the MVIP by December 2020 not only because we committed this, but also because interconnection among the three main grids is long overdue,” it said.

“The interconnection of Visayas and Mindanao was first proposed by government in 1984; but it was private entity NGCP which brought the government’s decades old plan from the feasibility stage to the implementation and completion stage,” it added.

In the coming years, the company said it is set to complete more projects, including the 500-kilovolt (kV) substation projects in Taguig and Marilao; and the 230-kV substation projects in Pasay, Navotas, and Antipolo. These substations will cater to the load growth of Metro Manila.

NGCP is also set to complete the Cebu-Bohol 230-kV interconnection project that will accommodate the load growth and provide reliability of Bohol Island; and the Nabas-Caticlan-Boracay interconnection project that will cover the load growth and provide reliability of the Boracay Island. It is also committed to finish the Visayas voltage improvement project to boost the power quality in the area.

In Mindanao, it is targeting to complete the 230-kV backbone project that will upgrade the southern region’s transmission capacity and secure the reliability of power transmission services in the area. It is also upgrading the island’s substation to increase the capacity and improve power quality. The 138-kV Kabacan substation project is expected to help in ensuring power reliability in south western Mindanao.

NGCP, led by majority shareholders Henry T. Sy, Jr. and Robert G. Coyiuto, Jr., said it strives to become the strongest power grid in Southeast Asia and has so far invested P151 billion in the government’s aging transmission system.

“A total of 5,626 transmission structures, 2,472 circuit-kilometers of transmission lines, 18 new substations, 63 upgraded substations, and an additional 15,634 MVA (megavolt ampere) of transformer capacity has been installed in the past 10 years,” it said. — Victor V. Saulon

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