NGCP offers to buy Cebu Energy’s assets

National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, operator of the country’s electricity superhighway, seeks to acquire the transmission assets of Metrobank Group affiliate Cebu Energy Development Corp. (CEDC) for P216 million.

In a filing with the Energy Regulatory Commission, NGCP said the plan was meant to maximize the use of these assets and ensure a level playing field among power-generation companies.

NGCP claimed that CEDC “lacks the necessary expertise, resources and capability to operate and maintain these assets in accordance with the standard and procedures under the Philippine Grid Code.”

As such, if these assets remain under the control of CEDC, “the transmission system on Panay Island will continue to be at risk,” NGCP said in the filing.

NGCP further pointed out that a transmission facility must not be used by any power-generation firm—like CEDC, which owns and operates a 246-megawatt coal-fired thermal power plant in Toledo, Cebu—for a “potential unfair market advantage over its competitors.”

Turning over the transmission assets to NGCP will give equal opportunity to other generation companies being served by these lines and by the Visayas grid. These assets, it added, play a vital role in the configuration of the grid and, as such, their reliability and security must always be ensured.

The assets include five 138-kilovolt power circuit breakers and accessories at the Cebu Energy switchyard (P45.8 million); Calung-Calung 138k kV double circuit transmission line (P86.12 million); 40 megavolt ampere (MVA) transformer (P29.41 million); four 138 kV power circuit breakers at Calung-Calung substation (P40.5 million); and the lot of Cebu Energy switchyard (P14.36 million).