President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has instructed the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to immediately address the power crisis that brought massive blackouts to the islands of Panay, Guimaras
and Negros last week.
This was relayed by Energy Secretary Raphael Perpetuo Lotilla to Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. with the assurance that the President has been apprised of the situation and that he is closely monitoring the measures
being done by NGCP.
The NGCP has also been told to be transparent and continuously update local officials, distribution utilities, power generators, the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) of
the status of the Visayas grid on a regular basis.
Defensor convened the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council and the Provincial Civil Defense Cluster on May 2 so they can immediately act on instructions and information critical in the
immediate resolution of the power crisis.
The governor disclosed that the President has specifically instructed the NGCP to make sure that a massive blackout in the grid will not happen again by synchronizing the “protection relays of transmission,
generation and distribution in the next two weeks.”
The NGCP was also told to immediately finish the third stage of the Cebu-Negros-Panay backbone project (CNP3) which involves linking Negros and Cebu by laying an overhead line from Bacolod City to San
Carlos City then to San Carlos City to Toledo City, Cebu through a submarine cable.
The whole CNP project involves the construction of a 238km long circuit, 230kV capacity transmission line linking the three islands of Cebu, Negros and Panay, which includes the expansion of the Barotac Viejo
substation, the E.B Magalona cable terminal station and the Bacolod substation.
Defensor also disclosed that the NGCP has been instructed by the President “to review the reliability of each Visayas sub-grids” and fast-tract the signing of the Ancillary Service Procurement Agreement (ASPA)
with the ERC.
Ancillary services support the transmission of power from generators to consumers to maintain reliable operations and are necessary to manage power fluctuations.
