Maharlika seals pact with energy agencies to modernize Mindoro grid

MANILA, Philippines — The Maharlika Investment Corp. (MIC) has inked a cooperation agreement with the country’s top energy agencies to rehabilitate and develop the power transmission system of Mindoro Island.

The deal, signed on Monday, formalizes more than a year of interagency coordination and technical collaboration aimed at addressing longstanding structural challenges of the Mindoro Small Grid.

Mindoro’s off grid network currently runs on a single loop 69 kilovolt line, which lacks redundancy and leaves the island highly prone to frequent service interruptions and sweeping outages that weigh on local economic activity.

Under the pact, planned upgrades include reconfiguring the system into a more resilient sectionalized network, deploying modern grid monitoring technologies and improving line access to speed up maintenance and restoration, the MIC said.

These measures are expected to pave the way for Mindoro’s eventual interconnection with the national grid.

Beyond stabilizing the local grid, the initiative also targets a cut in national power subsidies. Mindoro accounts for a hefty share of the Universal Charge for Missionary Electrification, funded by consumers nationwide.

By reducing system losses and moving the island’s grid toward commercial viability, the project aims to ease government subsidy burdens and eventually lower electricity costs across the country, it added.

For its part, Maharlika said it would step in as a strategic investor to back the acquisition, financing and rollout of the grid upgrade.

“MIC will consider financing and conducting technical studies to determine the most cost-effective ways to rehabilitate the grid, maintaining sole ownership over the work outputs,” it said.

The sovereign wealth fund manager also said it would explore investments to potentially buy, rehabilitate and upgrade the off-grid transmission assets currently owned by National Power Corp.