NGCP completes P700-million Leyte-Samar transmission

MANILA, Philippines — The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) has boosted its Leyte-Samar power corridor with the completion of the nearly P700 million transmission line in the region.

Line 2 of the Ormoc-Babatngon 138-kiloVolt (kV) transmission line was successfully energized in December, reinforcing power transmission delivery in Leyte and Samar.

Before the second circuit was energized, the line was originally only a single circuit and outages along the line, planned or unplanned resulted in a loss of power for all the Samar provinces, which rely heavily on power supply from other islands.

“With the energization of the second circuit, transmission services in the area will now become more reliable and prolonged power interruptions will be minimized or avoided altogether,” NGCP said.

The Ormoc and Babatngon substations were also upgraded to serve the increased capacity of the line.

The project, with an approved project cost of P697.6 million, gives way to a stronger transmission corridor from geothermal plants and other generating capacities in Leyte to Samar Island.

The Ormoc-Babatngon line serves five customers, particularly the Leyte Electric Cooperative Inc. II (LEYECO II), Samar Electric Cooperative Inc. I and II (SAMELCO I and II), Eastern Samar Electric Cooperative Inc. (ESAMELCO), and Northern Samar Electric Cooperative Inc. (NORSAMELCO), which cover parts of Leyte and the provinces of Samar, Eastern Samar, and Northern Samar.

“It is part of NGCP’s commitment to continually upgrade and improve the country’s transmission network, especially with the increasing demand for power year on year. The energization of the second circuit of the Ormoc-Babatngon 138kV transmission line will greatly benefit our customers in Eastern Visayas. Our customers can be assured that we are working on more projects to improve our network nationwide and deliver quality services to our people,” NGCP said.