NGCP to expand Tayabas substation

MANILA, Philippines – The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) applied with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to expand the Tayabas substation of the Luzon grid.

The grid will gain an additional 2,720 megawatts (MW) of capacity from 4 new power plants that will be constructed in Quezon province starting this year.

Yet the existing transmission facility cannot accommodate the load capacity of these new power plants.

“Considering the growing need for power supply in Luzon, additional generation is highly essential. However, the readiness of the grid to accommodate such significantly huge capacity from the incoming power plants is extremely necessary. Thus, NGCP proposes the implementation of the proposed Pagbilao substation project in order to accommodate the entry of new power plants in the Luzon grid,” said NGCP in its 12-page application.

At present, there are only two major power plants in Quezon province that are connected to the said substation.

These are the 2×367.5MW Pagbilao coal-fired power plant and the 500MW Quezon Power Philippines Limited Co.’s coal fired power plant.

The project cost is P3.62 billion ($80.9 million) and is estimated to be completed in 2018.

“Pre-construction activities are needed to be undertaken in 2015 in order to meet the target completion of the proposed project in 2018. Hence, the need to file an application with prayer for the issuance of provisional authority before the ERC to be able to implement the project within the target date established,” said NGCP.

The grid operator said that if the substation is not expanded, the entry of the new power plants will result in overloading of power transformers.

New Powerplants

These four new coal-power facilities starting this year in Quezon are the Pagbilao Energy Corporation (420MW) in Pagbilao;  San Buenaventura Power Ltd. Co. (500MW) in Mauban; Energy World Corporation (2×300 MW) in Pagbilao; and Meralco PowerGen Corporation (1,200MW) in Atimonan.

The Pagbilao expansion project is scheduled for testing and commissioning starting mid-2017, with commercial operations to follow in November 2017.

The target commissioning of San Buenaventura Power’s project, meanwhile, is in the second half of 2018 to first half of 2019.

Construction for the first unit of EWC’s power facility is ongoing and the second 200MW unit, will come online shortly thereafter, company officials said.

Meanwhile, MGen’s capital-extensive power project is still in the planning stage. – Rappler.com

 $1 = P44.71