NGCP bares ‘One Grid 2020,’ its M’nao interconnection plan

By Nora Sorino
Iligan City Bureau Chief .

National Grid Corporation of the Philippines bared and even presented to media on Friday its “One Grid 2020 Project.”

Dubbed as “Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project”  aimed to connect the Mindanao Grid to the Visayas grid and which will ultimately lead “to a single, unified grid by the time of its completion by 2020,” the NGCP said.

“With a unified national grid, power transmission services in the country will be more reliable as there will be less power interruptions nationwide  due to the sharing of local energy resources. Reliable electricity transmission, in turn, could help boost investments, infrastructure development and commerce in the country,” said NGCP.

It was then learned that currently, the country harnesses most of its electricity from the interconnected Luzon and Visayas grids, which was linked in 1998 and uses a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) system with a 440-megawatt (MW) capacity.

Once the MVIP is complete by 2020, it will be using an HVDC system with a 450-MW initial capacity.

The MVIP will employ 184 circuit- kilometers of overhead wires, to connect Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte to Santander, Cebu using HVDC system with a 450-MW initial capacity.

This was facilitated by Beth Ladaga, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Lead Specialist, with the engineers shedding light on some technical and other concerns and other personnel articulate on said project, even as written statements on the matter were also available.

The latter, is facilitated by Atty. Cynthia D. Perez Alabanza, its spokesperson.

Among the concerns aired by media was on the matter of “security” as it had been observed that recently some elements had caused some power outages in some areas in Mindanao.

The army personnel in the area who were in attendance during the presentation were assured those who were present that they are looking into the matter so that no incidents like that will happen again.

NGCP also articulated their social responsibility obligations and are active in giving and facilitating  livelihood concerns in identified areas which is one way of appeasing disgruntled minds of some people in  some areas in Mindanao.