NGCP completes upgrade of EMS facilities

MANILA, Philippines - The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) has completed the upgrade of its Energy Management System (EMS) in the Visayas.

The new management system will help ensure the balance of power supply and demand, the country’s transmission service provider said.

“This year’s upgrade of system operations facilities in the Visayas is part of a nationwide project that improved the capability of, and integrated NGCP’s National Control Center with its Regional Control Centers,” the company said.

The EMS upgrade integrates applications that are needed to manage the power transmission network.

NGCP said it spent P189.4 million for the upgrade in Luzon and the Visayas.

“The upgrade was necessary to replace obsolete hardware and overloaded system software in order to increase system reliability and performance,” NGCP said.

It will also provide complete system data by accommodating new stations, it added.

A major component of the EMS is its Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, which is a collection of equipment and software that facilitates control of remote devices, acquisition of real time data on power demand and the capacity of connected power plants.

NGCP also allotted P126.5 million for the upgrade of its EMS in Mindanao.

The NGCP recovers its investments through fixed rates added to consumers’ electricity bills.

The NGCP allotted roughly P100 billion in capital spending for the creation of new transmission lines and substations, and the expansion of existing facilities nationwide in the next 10 years.

The Transmission Development Plan targets improving power transmission nationwide through the installation of new system reinforcements, development of alternative transmission corridors, prevention of heavy loading and upgrade of existing facilities for the NGCP to be the strongest power grid in Southeast Asia.

NGCP is a private firm in charge of operating, maintaining, and developing the country’s power grid and electricity superhighways.