TACLOBAN
CITY, Sept. 22 (PNA) – The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP)
is eyeing to energize Ormoc-Babatngon 138 kiloVolts (kV) line in February 2017,
after right of way issues derailed the three-year old project.
NGCP Visayas
projects division head Winefred Paguia said the project is now 93 percent
complete for transmission portion and 98 percent for substation upgrade but it
cannot be energized until it is fully completed.
“The steel
towers have been in place, but there are still right of way issues in some
areas. Negotiating with property owners was the most challenging part.
Hopefully, we can resolve this soon,” Paguia said.
The project,
designed to ensure stability of power supply even after natural calamities, has
started in December 2012. It will also minimize hours of power shutdown during
maintenance works.
The
81.53-kilometer transmission line involves the construction of 221 steel
towers, six diving bus, and installation of necessary upgrade equipment at the
Ormoc and Babatngon substations.
This project
will be a second line or circuit of the existing Ormoc-Babatngon 138 kV line
that transmits power to Leyte II Electric Cooperative (Leyeco II) and entire
Samar Island.
Leyeco II
distributes power to this city, the regional capital and nearby towns of Palo
and Babatngon.
“With the
absence of second line, an outage of this existing transmission line will
result in blackout in the entire Samar Island as well as Leyeco II franchise,”
Paguia explained
Samar Island
has no internal generation and is dependent from the geothermal generation in
nearby Leyte, according to NGCP.
The line
serves as the corridor that will transmit the power supply from geothermal
plants in Leyte to Samar Island.
The NGCP is
private firm that operates, maintains, and develops the country’s transmission
network. It acquired the 25-year concession of National Transmission Corp. in
2008.
FPV/SARWELL Q. MENIANO
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