NGCP starts facility upgrade

CEBU, Philippines - The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines-Visayas Power Center is now upgrading its existing facilities to ensure efficiency in the delivery of power supply as demand is expected to rise by October to December this year.

Abner Bardoquillo, division head of the Network Operation Division of NGCP-VPC, yesterday said that they have to upgrade their facilities like putting up additional cable wires from their existing connections.

Bardoquillo said that as early as now they have to prepare considering that the months of October to December are considered peak season.

“We expect a power peak demand of at least 1,700 megawatts per day for these months. So, we have to upgrade our facilities wherein some of these are already ongoing,” said Bardoquillo during the NGCP Facility Tour for Cebu media yesterday.

NGCP, the system operator of the grid, has a mandate to deliver safe and reliable electricity throughout the country. The country has about 50 power plants. Some of the grids are interconnected through submarine cables.

NGCP is likewise tasked to balance the supply and demand of electricity by dispatching power provided by the plants to the market operators and transmit this to various distribution utilities.

As grid operator, NGCP provides system information to market operator so it could come up with a dispatch schedule to ensure the system is stable.

Bardoquillo added that  this year their transmission wheeling charge is now lowered from P0.70 per kilowatt in 2010 to P0.62 per kilowatt this year.

“Hopefully, this will translate into a lower electricity bill,” said Bardoquillo.

As of yesterday, the system capacity for Visayas was 1,666 megawatts while the system peak was 1,432 mw or a total power reserve of 234 mw.         

“We have excess of our power in the Visayas and we are transporting around 266 mw to Luzon,” said Bardoquillo.

“Niubos ang power demand nato due to the cold weather,” he added.—(FREEMAN)