Shutting down the Sucat-Araneta 230-kilovolt line of National Transmission Corp. (Transco) will not only cause rotating brownouts in some service areas of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) but will also result in an increase of about P0.1013 a kilowatt-hour in Meralco rates, Transco said.

In a presentation at an emergency meeting last month, Transco said providing short-term solutions to the problem resulting from the deactivation of the transmission line would cost both Meralco and the government’s National Power Corp. (Meralco) millions of pesos a year that consumers would have to bear.

For Meralco, its system losses will increase by more than P93.4 million annually, effectively jacking up the power distributor’s rates by P0.1013 a kWh, based on average rates in 2008.

Napocor will incur an additional cost of more than P3.1 billion a year due to the increase in generation of its Limay, Bataan, plants as well as the dispatch of more oil-fired plants.

Should the closure of the line push through, a long-term solution would have to be put in place. This would involve the construction of underground cables running parallel to Tamarind Road at the back of the Forbes Park and Dasmariñas Village subdivisions in Makati City.

Covering a distance of some three kilometers, running from Pole No. 54 to Pole No. 84 of the existing Sucat-Araneta line, the project would cost Transco P1 billion—excluding right-of-way and relocation costs.

On top of these additional costs and impending rate increases, Transco said rotating brownouts in the affected areas would also have to be implemented.

Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes earlier said vast areas of Metro Manila and Bulacan province—in the north sector of the Meralco franchise area—would experience power outages for two to three hours a day on weekdays.

The affected areas will include a major part of Bulacan, north of Manila, that are served by Meralco substations in Sta. Maria, Bocaue and Meycauayan; all of Caloocan City, which is served by the Grace Park substation; the whole of the Novaliches district of Quezon City, which is served by the substations in Novaliches, Bagbaguin and Kaybiga; the cities of Malabon and Valenzuela, which are served by the Malabon and Malinta substations; Manila areas served by the North Port, Tegen, Tutuban and Sta. Mesa substations; most areas of Quezon City, which are served by the Diliman, Kamuning, Sta. Mesa and Novaliches substations; and a part of the Makati business district, including Rockwell Center, which is served by Meralco’s Rockwell Bank No. 1 substation.

The decommissioning of the line would also drastically reduce the reliability and stability of Transco’s system, presenting a high probability of system collapse. The possibility of transformer and line failure would likewise be heightened due to overloading.

The Sucat-Araneta line is the main delivery route of electricity from power plants in Batangas province, south of Manila. It passes from Sucat Road in Parañaque City through the Sergio Osmena Sr. Highway (also known as the South Superhighway), the perimeter of Fort Bonifacio and Dasmariñas Village subdivision to Araneta Avenue in Quezon City.

The Supreme Court on Oct. 28 issued a final and executory decision ordering the immediate shutdown of the line, favoring residents of Dasmariñas Village and Barangay Dasmariñas in Makati City.

The residents first filed a case with the Makati Regional Trial Court on March 9, 2000, citing the health hazards of electromagnetic radiation generated through the cables as the reason for wanting to de-energize the line.

The Makati court issued a temporary restraining order on the construction of the project on April 3, 2000, but this was overturned by the Court of Appeals the following month.

The Dasmariñas residents then brought the case up to the Supreme Court on Nov. 20, 2000, and won the battle on March 23, 2006, with the high tribunal’s reversal of the appellate court’s decision.

The Supreme Court decision became final and executory on Oct. 28, 2008, but Transco has asked to be given until the end of next month to undertake activities to mitigate the effects of the transmission line shutdown. With editing by INQUIRER.net