Mindoro-Panay grid link not ready before 2035, NGCP says

ILOILO CITY — The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) estimates that it would complete the Mindoro-Panay grid connection by 2035 at the earliest, a project meant to ease the power problems of Panay Island and the rest of the Visayas.

Redi Allan Remoroza, NGCP assistant vice president and head of the Transmission Planning Department, gave the estimate on Saturday, Oct. 3, during a joint hearing in Bacolod City of the House of Representatives committees on energy, legislative franchises, and Visayas development.

The Mindoro-Panay Interconnection Project is the second stage of NGCP’s planned Batangas-Mindoro-Panay interconnection, which aims to connect Panay Island to the Luzon grid through Mindoro Island.

Mindoro, in turn, is to be linked to the grid through Batangas province in mainland Luzon.

Remoroza initially said the Mindoro-Panay segment would be online “beyond 2032,” but when Rep. Julienne Baronda, who represents Iloilo City’s lone district, asked him again, he said it may be online by 2035.

Remoroza said the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) had already approved the extension of the 230-kilovolt transmission line from Barotac Viejo, Iloilo, to Nabas, Aklan.

“We are already implementing segments of the ultimate Mindoro-Panay interconnection. As mentioned, the Batangas-Mindoro [section] is already undergoing,” Remoroza said.

“[The Batangas-Mindoro line] will be until 2032 for the southern part of Mindoro, and our estimate for the Mindoro-Panay line, the earliest would be 2035, the submarine cable,” he added.

Battery system

Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said the battery energy storage system (BESS), one of the short-term measures the Department of Energy (DOE) is implementing to mitigate the region’s power problems, is ready for rollout.

“They’re ready to install and connect; all that’s needed is a contract,” Garin said.

The BESS involves a 276-megawatt system across the Visayas that would augment the power supply, together with power barges to be provided by several private power entities.

The facilities include two on Cebu Island and one each on Bohol, Leyte, Negros, and Panay islands.

Garin acknowledged that the BESS would not completely solve the current energy situation because it is a storage system, not new or additional energy.

“[The BESS] is not new energy, not an additional energy. […] The energy is already there, [and] we are just storing it. But this will minimize the alerts, not eradicate it,” Garin said.

Garin said the Visayas ultimately needs 500 to 600 megawatts of battery storage within the next three to five years to stabilize its grid.

The DOE settled on a capacity of 276 to 278 megawatts as a cost-effective measure for the government.

“In our simulations, what we’ve seen is 500 to 600 [MW], but we opted for 278 [MW]. It can go up to 500, [depending on] what is needed, but we need to work with the [Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines] to simulate the cost,” she said.

“The more [battery storage power], the better, [but] we just need to find the balance of the [power] price,” she added.