ERC okays 2 Meralco projects

MANILA, Philippines - The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), has approved two projects of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s biggest power distributor.

The two projects are the Mahabang Parang-Batangas City 69-kilovolt lines and the construction of the First Cavite Industrial Estate-Rosario 115-kV line, with a total cost of P548.1 million.

Meralco said the first project involves the construction of 69-kV lines with an approximate total length of 14.6 kilometers. The new lines will provide an alternate feed to the Batangas City substation and the Meralco-BolBoc substation.

 â€œThe project also includes the installation of necessary line terminations and associated protection equipment at the NGCP-Mahabang Parang substation and the Batangas City substation and the acquisition of right-of-way for the 69-kV lines,” Meralco said.

In seeking ERC approval for this project, Meralco said, the new lines will strengthen the power distributor’s 69-kV system in Batangas City and San Pascual areas and augment the capacity to accommodate the increasing demand in these areas.

The second project, on the other hand, involves the construction of new 115-kV line along the road using steel poles from FCIE substation to Rosario 115-kV substation with an approximate length of 15.5 kilometers.

 â€œIt also includes the installation of associated protection equipment at FCIE and Rosario substations,” Meralco said.

 â€œWithout the project, the Rosario substation would be isolated from its 115 kV source in case of outage of the Dasmarinas-Abubot-Rosario 115-kV line which may result to prolonged power interruption,” Meralco added.

The ERC said the two projects’ implementation will be subject to further monitoring and optimization in Meralco’s next annual revenue requirement application under the performance-based regulation rate-setting methodology.