To address the looming power crisis, MORE Power has sought the intervention of the Iloilo City officials, ensuring National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) provides sufficient capacity promptly and completes the approved uprating of their Iloilo City Substation.
MORE Power President and CEO Mr. Roel Castro laid this out to Iloilo City Council in a meeting following the blackout incident on January 2, 2024.
However, according to Castro, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has already ordered the reclassification of the assets as transmission assets two years ago. The 3x100MVA new Iloilo Substation is in NGCP’s Transmission Development Program (TDP), and it was supposed to be finished last December. Still, as of this writing, it hasn’t even started yet, and it needs a 450-day construction period.
The project’s commencement is significantly delayed, attributed to the absence of a firm commercial agreement between NGCP and Global Business Power Corp. (GBPC) for the reclassified assets located in Lapaz.
However, with Iloilo City being an investment hub in Region 6 and with a load demand growth of 4%, the existing NGCP facility may not be capable anymore by early 2025.
If NGCP does not immediately start the uprating of their Iloilo 3x100MVA Substation by 2025, the total loading of the 100MVA transformer of NGCP in Sta Barbara will be beyond the NGCP’s System Integrity Protection Scheme (SIPS) limit. As a result, MORE Power and ILECO 1 Pavia and Iloilo Provincial Capitol will be interrupted.
The potential shortfall in NGCP’s substation capacity by 2025 poses a severe risk of supply curtailments and load shedding, leading to economic repercussions for Iloilo City and surrounding areas.
However, if the NGCP’s 3x100MVA Iloilo Substation is implemented and given that the Cebu, Negros, and Panay backbone transmission project will be completed, the power supply will not be a problem in the years to come.
Castro also said that he had already written ERC Chairperson Hon. Monalisa Dimalanta urging the commission’s intervention, citing the importance of the matter.
He also revealed this concern to the Senators and Congressmen during last week’s hearings concerning the Panay and Guimaras island power blackout incidents.
NGCP executives committed that they would finish the project by the end of December 2024.
