Sta Rosa substation upgrade completed

MANILA, Philippines - German-based Siemens has completed another successful partnership with Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) in the recent upgrade of a 230 kV substation in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

Owned by Meralco, the Sta. Rosa substation serves as a delivery point to the Southern Luzon provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Quezon and Batangas.

The company said it supervised the installation, assembly, testing and commissioning of the substation’s new 300 MVA transformer, doubling its total capacity to 600 MVA. The expansion project aims to prevent a system blackout in Laguna due to overloading of the adjacent substations with the outage of the existing 300 MVA bank at Sta. Rosa 2.

“Siemens is committed to support Meralco in its drive to attain 100 percent electrification in its franchise. Our partnership with Meralco has been demonstrated in various projects since 2004 and we are honored by their continuous vote of confidence in our capabilities,” said Jorel Nuyda, senior vice president of Siemens Inc. Philippines.

This is Siemens’ third successful delivery of a power transformer to Meralco. Last year, Meralco awarded Siemens the supply contract for its newly installed 230 kV substation in Amadeo, Cavite.

This substation was designed to provide back up power to the entire province in case of an outage at the National Transmission Co.’s (now National Grid Corp. of the Philippines) Dasmariñas substation. The timely commissioning of the Amadeo substation in December 2008 averted a major and widespread outage sometime in March this year when a fire broke out and destroyed one of the two 300-MVA transformer units at the Dasmariñas power station.