Repairs of transmission lines almost complete – NGCP

MANILA, Philippines - The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), the country’s transmission highway operator, said yesterday that the repairs of its transmission lines damaged by Super Typhoon Yolanda are almost complete.

NGCP spokesperson Cynthia Perez-Alabanza said that restoration activities are on track and that more and more cooperatives are being connected through NGCP’s transmission lines.

“We are glad that our restoration activities are right on track. More and more cooperatives are being connected through our transmission facilities, which means more households will have power. We are still positive that we will meet the Department of Energy’s deadline for completion,” Alabanza said.

The DOE has set a Dec. 24 deadline to restore electricity in city centers of Yolanda-hit provinces.

The latest development in NGCP’s restoration efforts is the normalization of the Ormoc-Cabacungan 350-kilovolt (kV) High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) line in Leyte which now allows up to 200 megawatts (MW) of electricity to flow from Luzon to Visayas during peak hours, thereby adding to the existing power supply of the Visayas grid, NGCP said in an advisory yesterday.

Eleven more transmission lines were energized as of Dec. 17, six of which are in Leyte, while the rest are in Panay Island, the company said in its latest advisory.