Transco, Marubeni ink deal for transmission line project

The National Transmission Corp. (Transco) signed yesterday a P144-million transmission line project with Marubeni Philippines Corp.

Transco president Alan T. Ortiz said the project, once completed in December this year, will significantly boost the power transmission distribution in the Luzon grid.

Ortiz and Marubeni Power Development Corp. general manager (Tokyo) Tomofumi Fukuda led officials in a signing ceremony at Transco’s head office in Diliman.

The project will cover the 10-kilometer distance from the San Roque Hydroelectric plant to Transco’s San Manuel station in Pangasinan and will use steel towers and double-circuit conductors.

The steel towers are designed to withstand typhoons with wind velocity of up to 275 kilometers per hour, avoiding trippings or shutdowns during the rainy season.

"The project’s completion will boost the power situation in Luzon because it will increase the reliability of the line connecting the San Roque generation facility to the Luzon grid and at the same time drive down the cost of power from the hydro plant during the rainy season when it could generate a lot more than its nominated capacity," said Ortiz.

He said another benefit is that costs will be significantly lower if the 345-megawatt (MW) San Roque generation unit will be allowed to deliver more power to the grid. Transco estimates that starting 2006, power generated beyond the 85-MW nominated capacity of the plant will only cost P1.50 per kilowatthour (kwh).

For the period 2007 to 2012, power that will delivered beyond the plant’s 95-MW nominated capacity will only cost P0.33/kwh.

The Transco chief said as the biggest hydropower project in Asia, the peaking plant will be a major component of the power sector’s commitment to provide adequate and reliable power to the Luzon grid, which accounts for about 70 percent of the country’s total electricity consumption.

"The last quarter of this year will be a very busy one for Transco as we will be completing major projects under our various transmission augmentation programs. While the Leyte-Cebu and Cebu Mactan interconnection projects are set for completion in October and November, work for the San Roque-San Manuel line will wrap up by year-end. This means that we will have a very robust transmission network when we welcome 2006," Ortiz said.