NGCP: Transmission grid ops not at risk from foreign entity

By Lenie Lectura @llectura

NGCP is 40-percent owned by the state Grid Corporation of China (sCGCC). There are four Chinese directors who sit on the 10-person board.

a d dressing accusations that the grid is vulnerable as a result of foreign ownership participation in NGCP, the company officials insisted, “There is simply no truth to this accusation. a l l control centers, substations, and command centers are operated by Filipinos.” during a senate hearing, lawmakers wanted to know why the remaining six board members—who are all Filipinos—could not immediately convene the board members for a meeting.

“The 60:40 requirement of the Constitution is for Filipinos to always have control of public utilities because of public interest and na- tional security, but how can we be in control if we can’t even convene the board right away in the first meeting because of a provision that they cannot unless it’s the third time,” senator sherwin Gatchalian said.

The NGCP’s website identified zhu Guangchao as chairman of the NGCP board. The other board members are henry sy, Jr., robert Coyiuto, Jr., Jose Pardo, Francis Chua, Yao Yousheng, Wang lijin, liu Xinhua, a nthony a lmeda, and Paul sagayo Jr. a statement from the NGCP said that sGCC’s stake cannot and does not amount to control of the company because Filipinos own 60 percent.

“Government has always known about sGCC’s participation in NGCP. state Grid participated in the privatization of Transco as the foreign technical partner of the consortium that won the concession. The concession was awarded at the fourth round of an open and competitive public bidding initiated by the government. This winning consortium eventually formed NGCP,” it said. a ssuming there are no further delays, it would be 2027. It’s already a very tight timeline,” said NGCP spokesperson Cynthia a l abanza at the hearing. occidental Mindoro province was recently placed under a state of calamity due to daily 20-hour power outages. since 2009, NGCP has completed a total of 56 projects and has invested P300 billion in the transmission system. a total of 3,729 circuit kilometers of transmission lines, 28 new substations, and an additional 31,190 MVa of transformer capacity has been installed in the past 14 years. despite NGCP’s best efforts, delays in the completion of certain projects could not be avoided due to the disruption that two years of Covid-19 restrictions caused to the global supply chain, right-of-way challenges, and repeated suspensions of work in expropriation courts and local governments for permitting, among others.

NGCP stressed that the security of the grid is of paramount importance to the grid operator. “In fact, we recently signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) with the NIC a (National Intelligence Coordinating a gency) to further protect our country’s transmission assets. We continue to find ways to protect the transmission system from all threats,” it said.

To finish interconnection dUr ING the same hearing, NGCP committed to finish the BatangasMindoro Interconnection Project in 2027.

“We received approval in February 2023, but even before approval we have done pre-construction work. We are already moving forward with that project.

“These are the realities. But we accomplished what we were supposed to do. across the globe, rightof-way and government permitting are among the primary challenges facing the construction of transmission lines. In other developed countries, it takes anywhere between 10 to 15 years to build transmission lines,” it said.

This year, NGCP said it energized and will complete the hermosa- san Jose 500kV Transmission line project in just seven years. The CebuNegros-Panay stage 3 Backbone project is likewise energized and set for completion also in just seven years. The Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection project was energized and will be completed in only six years.