MANILA, Philippines - The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), the country’s power transmission service provider, is seeking the approval of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for the P721-million repair and upgrade of its switchyard in Iligan City.
NGCP spokesperson Cynthia Alabanza said there is a need to fast track the rehabilitation of the 59-year old switchyard.
She said an outage from the switchyard would significantly affect the power situation in Mindanao.
“It is high time for NGCP to rehabilitate the Agus 6 switchyard to improve its condition and ensure its reliable operations. An outage from the switchyard would be very critical to the stability of the power supply in Mindanao, which is badly needed,†Alabanza said.
The switchyard is located in the vicinity of the Agus 6 Hydroelectric Power Plant (HEPP), owned and operated by the government through the National Power Corp. (Napocor).
According to NGCP’s rehabilitation plan, the project would have three components.
These are the construction of a new 69-kilovolt (kV) facility, rehabilitation of the existing 138-kV facility and construction of a new control room building.
Rehabilitation of the Agus 6 switchyard is critical to Mindanao’s power situation because of large portion of Mindanao’s power comes from the plant. “It also provides contingency reserve to the grid, which makes the switchyard’s upgrading crucial,†Alabanza said.
At present, the Agus 6 switchyard serves electric cooperatives in Mindanao, the Lanao del Norte Electric Cooperative (LANECO) and Iligan Light Power, Inc. (ILPI), which distribute electricity in Lanao del Norte.
Despite regular maintenance, most of the devices in the switchyard are already old, defective, and prone to frequent breakdowns, the NGCP official also said.
Aside from being old and worn-out, the equipment installed in the switchyard is already obsolete in the market, making replacement and repairs difficult for NGCP.