MANILA -Amid tensions in Congress regarding its legislative franchise, National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) on Thursday said it had so far invested P300 billion in the improvement of the state-owned power grid since winning the bid for its operations and management in 2009.
“We continue to be hopeful that improvements in all three sectors of the power delivery system are in sync with each other, so that one sector is not made to be the sole or principal solution to challenges in the other sectors,” NGCP said in a statement.
It was referring to the three power sectors crucial in ensuring adequate and stable electricity supply in the country: generation, transmission, and distribution.
NGCP added it had completed 56 projects over the course of 14 years since it took over the government’s “aging transmission system,” including the P52-billion Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project that recently began partial operations.
The statement comes after senators raised concerns over China’s involvement in the country’s power transmission business, with Sen. JV Ejercito saying the government must exhaust all legal remedies to regain full Filipino control of the energy transmission system.
NGCP responded to calls to evaluate its 50-year legislative franchise by saying that it had “faith in the legal process and we will continue to comply with all lawful directives, and pursue our mandate faithfully.”
The Department of Energy (DOE) earlier said the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) would be conducting a performance audit of NGCP following widespread blackouts in the power-hungry Luzon grid last week.
Energy Undersecretary Rowena Guevara recently told reporters that the agency had already met with the ERC to discuss the audit, which would focus on the NGCP’s Transmission Development Plan.
“The franchise was awarded by Congress, and only Congress has the power to revoke that. We’ll submit the report, but it won’t contain any color. We just state the facts,” Guevara said when asked what the DOE expected from the audit report.
For its part, the NGCP said it was set to complete more projects in 2023 to help avoid the looming power crisis as electricity demand in the country continues to rise amid thinning supply.
This includes the long-delayed Hermosa-San Jose 500-kilovolt transmission line project in Bataan province and the Cebu-Negros-Panay Stage 3 backbone project, which the DOE claimed could have prevented the recent power interruptions in Luzon.
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