Plan drawn up to prevent Luzon-wide blackouts

The National Transmission Co. (Transco) has drawn up a comprehensive scheme to prevent a recurrence of the Luzon-wide blackout which occurred last Jan. 21.

Official documents show that Transco will implement various plans and activities aimed at achieving short-term, medium-term and long-term mitigating goals over the next two years.

Transco, a spin off from the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), handles all the transmission assets of Napocor that are scheduled to be sold middle of this year.

The scheme, called Transmission Line Reliability Improvement plan, is in response to President Arroyo’s directive to the National Power Corp. (Napocor) to come up with a scheme that would prevent systemwide power failures. Otherwise, heads will roll again in the power firm. It will be recalled that lawmakers requested Napocor president Jesus N. Alcordo to take a leave of absence after the Jan. 21 incident.

As part of its short-term plan, Transco will energize the San Jose-Tayabas Line 2 from 230 kilovolt (kV) to 500 kV. The project is scheduled for commissioning early next month.

Other plans and activities that are underway are: an increase in the number of units on line during low load, holidays or weekends; completion of the connection and energize at 500 kV the Kalayaan-Tayabas-San Jose transmission line to deter pilferage; and review of the 500-kV line protection scheme in the South to eliminate undesired trippings.

Under its medium-term plan, Transco expects to complete the upgrade and improvement of the National Control Center (NCC) by end-December 2002.

The NCC project will include: protection upgrade, telecom upgrade, and supervisory control and date acquisition-energy management system upgrade.

Based on the long-term scheme, it will also be constructing new and additional Kalayaan units. Kalayaan lines are located in Quezon province. Construction is expected to be completed in end-December 2004.

The firm is also expected to upgrade transmission lines in the Batangas and Laguna areas. Target completion is also set in December 2004.

The enactment of Republic Act 9136, otherwise known as the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, paves the way for the segregation of functions in the electricity industry.

Under the new set-up. Transco is created to take over the electrical transmission functions of Napocor.