Negros Power breaks ground on first digital substation at Megaworld

Negros Electric and Power Corporation (NEPC), or Negros Power, broke ground on September 9 for the Upper East Megaworld Substation in Bacolod City, which the company describes as its first digital substation.

Bacolod City Mayor Greg Gasataya and the city’s vice mayor attended the morning ceremony alongside representatives of project partner Megaworld.

The project will add capacity and reliability to Negros Power’s network, serve more customers, and support the growth of the Megaworld development, according to NEPC Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Engr. Joe-Mel S. Zaporteza, who presented the project overview.

Zaporteza said “this is the first digital substation of Negros Power and probably the first digital substation in the whole Negros Island region.”

Over the past two years, Negros Power has improved reliability by more than 70 percent and added at least 40 MVA of capacity, Zaporteza said.

The substation will open with a capacity of 37.5 MVA. It has a provision to expand by another 37.5 MVA through an additional power transformer or another substation.

It will start with five feeders and has room for five more, for a total of 10.

The Megaworld area currently draws power from an existing Negros Power substation that can meet its present needs. However, Zaporteza said a dedicated substation for Megaworld would be the prudent choice.

The facility will take its power from the 69 kV system through two lines instead of one. If one line has trouble, power can be diverted to the other.

The substation will also be SCADA-enabled, short for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, which gives the company real-time data on its operations.

“We will be able to control the substation remotely,” Zaporteza said.

More substations also let the utility provide what Zaporteza called an “n minus 1 contingency,” which keeps its service area energized even if one substation goes down.

The design includes a provision for a mobile substation to be installed quickly, and a facade meant to blend with the Megaworld development.

Equipment installation, testing, commissioning, and final energization are targeted for the third quarter of 2027.

The ceremony also included a blessing of the site by a priest and a time capsule rite.

NEPC President and Chief Executive Officer Roel Z. Castro called the substation one of the company’s major capital investments in the area. It is worth about PHP 250 million over the next one and a half years.

The company has already put more than PHP 1.3 billion to PHP 1.4 billion into its franchise area, Castro said.

Castro thanked Megaworld for providing 1,300 square meters for the project. “If you only gave us 100 square meters, I would do an underground substation,” Castro said, adding that this option would have cost about two to three times more.

Castro recalled asking local officials and consumers for patience when the company started. At the time, Gasataya was still a congressman and the vice mayor was a councilor.

“Give us breathing space for five years,” Castro recalled saying at the time.

According to Castro, the joint venture came about because the partner utility’s own management and board recognized that they needed capital, technology, and expertise. By then, the company already had a track record of about four or five years in Iloilo.

The company’s first major test was a substation failure that affected more than 60,000 customers. Negros Power borrowed a mobile substation and restored almost 90 percent of service by the following Monday.

“We never do things alone. We never do things by ourselves alone,” Castro said, citing the company’s partnerships with government, business groups, and barangays.

Castro said the current power supply problems do not come from the distribution side.

“What is happening right now, and I’ll put it very, very bluntly and very, very straight and very, very honestly, it is because of generation deficiency,” Castro said.

At times, about 600 megawatts of power were out of the system while baseload plants were down, according to Castro.

“Though we are happy that we have our renewables, definitely it helps. But it cannot replace the base load generation,” Castro said.

Castro expects the generation shortfall to last about one and a half to two years. “We’re looking optimistically into the future,” Castro said. “No, this is not the norm.”

The new substation will support growth in the area for the next five years and will be operated from the company’s control center, Castro said.

Some of the 11 substations Negros Power inherited are in critical condition, Castro said. One is loaded only minimally because adding more load could cause an explosion.

As a result, the company has decided to bring its mobile substation over from Iloilo. Castro said this may slow growth in that part of the service area for now.

Castro said consumers should not have to rely on generators and pledged that this would change within about a year and a half.

Service interruptions have dropped by about 70 percent in frequency and duration over the last two years. Castro said the company will keep working until reliability improves by more than 90 percent, and asked the community for three more years.

“Give us five years, let us do our work,” Castro said, restating the company’s original commitment.

Gasataya pledged continued cooperation with the utility and the private sector.

“Our commitment will continue to be there to work together with the private sector, with the business sector, as well as the providers of our utilities,” Gasataya said.

Gasataya also assured the company that the city would do its share amid current challenges.

To close the program, Negros Power Chief Technical Officer Engr. Bernard Bailey del Castillo said the digital substation fits the vision of making Bacolod a smart city.

“And so much for the vision, it’s time for execution,” del Castillo said.