NGCP upgrades North Luzon substations

MANILA, Philippines — The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) has upgraded its substations in North Luzon to further improve power transmission services.

NGCP said it has energized new power transformers in several substations as part of the second stage of its North Luzon substation upgrading project.

The facilities energized include the 100 megavolt-ampere (MVA) Transformer 1 in Tuguegarao substation in Cagayan, 100-MVA Transformer 1 in San Esteban Substation in Ilocos Sur, and the 100-MVA Transformer in Laoag Substation in Ilocos Norte.

“The upgrading of these substations is being done to cater the load growth and provide N-1 contingency to substations in NGCP’s North Luzon region,” the power transmission operator said.

“Without the project, power interruptions may be experienced by customers in the event of failure of existing transformers and power circuit breakers,” it said.

NGCP said an N-1 contingency, a requirement of the Philippine Grid Code, is the ability of the grid to withstand a major system disturbance with minimal or no impact to the system.

Aside from the projects recently energized, NGCP said it would also upgrade its substations in other areas such as La Union, Nueva Vizcaya, Isabela, Pangasinan, Tarlac, Pampanga, Zambales and Nueva Ecija.

The overall substation upgrading project has already been filed with the Energy Regulatory Commission with a total project cost of P9.93 billion, according to the company.

NGCP is a Filipino-led, privately owned company in charge of operating, maintaining, and developing the country’s power grid.

It is committed to invest approximately P440 billion over a 13-year period across 211 projects which are aimed at supporting  the country’s growing electricity demand and make its power backbone continuously reliable.

NGCP, which holds a 25-year concession and a 50-year congressional franchise to expand and operate the country’s power transmission grid, is the sole operating asset of publicly listed Synergy Grid and Development Philippines Inc.

It holds the sole and exclusive concession and franchise for the operation of the Philippines’ transmission network, linking power generators and distribution utilities to deliver electricity to power distributors and cooperatives nationwide.