NGCP to start P13B transmission link

Sy-led National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), operator of the country’s transmission network, is set to build a P12.9-billion corridor connecting the provinces of Cebu, Negros and Panay.

The Cebu-Negros-Panay 230kV backbone project was proposed to be funded with internally generated cash, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) said.

In its ruling approving the proposed project, ERC said the project would increase the transmission capability of the submarine cable interconnection between the three provinces. This in turn makes the so-called transmission corridor more reliable as new generating plants are developed in response to increasing power requirements in the Visayas Grid.

The proposed project will relieve the existing 138kV transmission corridor in Negros and Cebu islands from power flow congestion during single line outage conditions and will optimize the Leyte-Luzon 350kV line.

In early 2012, NGCP had said the proposed project would help absorb more than 400 megawatts in new capacity that would be installed in Panay by 2016.

Based on NGCP’s 2011 Transmission Development Plan, 10 generating plants would be constructed in Panay by 2016. Such capacity increase will result in excess power, thus the need for new transmission lines to export the excess power to other islands in the Visayas.

The project will also extend the existing 230-kV transmission corridor from Compostela Substation in Cebu toward Panay through a combination of submarine cables and overhead transmission lines which will pass through Negros Island. Once completed, the project is seen to add 238 circuit kilometers (ckm) of transmission lines to NGCP’s facilities.