BY GEROME DALIPE IV
ILOILO City – What’s stopping the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) from implementing its proposed 37 power transmission projects in the country?
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has summoned NGCP to attend the clarificatory hearing relative to the show-cause order issued against the latter for delayed implementation of NGCP’s approved capital expenditure (capex) projects.
In a three-page order dated Feb. 12, 2024, ERC chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta directed NGCP to attend the second clarificatory hearing via an online platform to allow the respondent to answer questions by the ERC on Feb. 21
City attorney Joseph Edward Areño said the city government will intervene in the petition filed by ERC against the NGCP. Lawyers from the City Legal Office are expected to attend the online clarificatory hearing.
The order for NGCP to attend the clarificatory hearing came as the country’s sole grid operator announced another round of power interruption in some parts of Iloilo city and province on Sunday, Feb. 18.
The NGCP said the power interruption is to carry out preventive maintenance of its 100MVA transformer No. 1 in the Iloilo substation.
The ERC issued a show-cause order against the NGCP asking it to explain the delay in the completion of the transmission projects in July 2023.
In an order dated June 14, 2023, the ERC ordered the NGCP to submit a “verified explanation” within 15 days from receipt of the order “why no administrative penalty should be imposed upon it.”
The ERC noted that the timelines for the NGCP’s approved capital expenditure projects were not followed and the grid operator’s implementation of its projects has been delayed.
Among those delayed power transmission projects is the proposed 230 kV Cebu-Negros-Panay (CNP) backbone project, a major part of the Transmission Development Plan (TDP) of NGCP.
Based on the 2016 TDP, the NGCP was supposed to have completed the CNP 230 kV Backbone Project in 2020, but the completion date has been delayed at least seven times from the original completion date of December 2020.
As of October 2023, the said project is 99.64 percent completed, but the estimated completion time is yet to be assessed based on the Transmission Project Status Report October 2023 update.
The other long-delayed transmission projects in the Visayas region include stages 2 and 3 of the CNP 230 kV Backbone Project, Cebu-Lapu Lapu Transmission Project, Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project, Naga (Cebu) Sub-station Upgrading Project, Tagbilaran 69 kV Substation Project, and Visayas Voltage Improvement Project.
The Department of Energy (DOE) has asked NGCP to implement its development plan, saying the four-day blackout on Panay Island could been prevented had the NGCP completed on time the 230 kV CNP Backbone Project.
NGCP spokesperson Cynthia Alabanza was quoted as attributing the delays to several factors such as procurement of rights of way and protracted permitting procedures, among others.
“Late issuance of regulatory approvals may also be a reason for implementation schedules outside of those proposed in the TDP. NGCP continues to pursue all its projects and looks forward to the government’s continued support as it does so,” Alabanza said./PN
