A SENATOR is urging the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to expedite its expansion program for transmission to fully interconnect regions in the Visayas necessary for the creation of energy spot market.
Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, who was in Bacolod City on Friday, June 9, said with the province’s abundance in solar power, I, t can actually export, but there is still a problem in transmission.
Zubiri, main author of the Renewable Energy Act, said Negros Occidental currently has “over capacity” of solar power as it is producing more than its consumption requirement.
Since Negros has no capability of exporting electricity yet, many of these renewable energy resources are lost, he added.
“We are now pushing the NGCP to interconnect the island, especially Cebu, Panay and Negros, so that the latter could already distribute its surplus renewable energy across the Visayas,” Zubiri said, adding that “once component regions are fully connected we can already come up with the Visayas Energy Spot Market.”
For instance, the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco), catering to most electric consumers in the province, has a maximum demand of 142 to 146 megawatts (MWs).
Of which, almost 138 MW is being covered by its power supply agreements with four generation utilities. The shortfall in supply of about eight MWs is being addressed by the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).
Under the Epira Law, any power requirement outside the bilateral contract is automatically supplied by the WESM.
Zubiri, for his part, said that the shortfall could actually be offset by the province’s surplus in supply of solar power, which is cheaper than the power being sold at WESM.
In a meeting with NGCP officials in Beijing, China last month, Zubiri said Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi demanded the transmission utility that they should interconnect their lines all over the Visayas.
Cusi insisted that by 2018, NGCP has to implement its transmission expansion program, pointing out that the firm has already recovered its capital.
“They have already made their money, in fact they are gaining more, but they have not yet rolled out their transmission projects,” Zubiri added.
The senator also discouraged the establishment of additional solar power plants in Negros, pending the transmission development of NGCP.
Earlier, NGCP spokesperson Cynthia Perez-Alabanza said power plants, which are upgrading their facilities and building more connections, are required to get grid impact study from the NGCP.
“However, the solar plants went on and built their facilities but the grid was not able to adapt because it was too quick,” she said, adding that “we normally need several years to plan and ensure that facilities are in place.”
In 2016, NGCP’s transmission capacity from Negros to Cebu is 180 MW, which is relatively lower than the island’s generation capacity, particularly in terms of renewable energy sources like solar.
For solar power alone, the province currently has a generation capacity of at least 341.5 MW from five solar power firms.
These are the 59-MW San Carlos Sun Power Inc. plant in San Carlos City; 132.5-MW farm of Helios Solar Energy in Cadiz City, the largest in Southeast Asia; 25-MW Citicor Power in Silay City; 48-MW and 32-MW farms of Negros Island Solar Power in Manapla and La Carlota, respectively; and San Carlos Solar Energy’s 45-MW facility also in San Carlos City.
Engineer Christian Ereño, head of NGCP’s Visayas Systems Planning, had said that NGCP does not encourage more plants in Negros and Panay until the completion of its Cebu-Negros-Panay 230 kilovolts (kV) Backbone Project positioned to fully address line congestion problems in the Visayas.
Ereño said the Cebu-Negros-Panay 230-kV Backbone Project will translate to an additional transmission capacity of 800 MW between Negros and Cebu.
“Before its full completion and operation, which is targeted by 2020, NGCP will limit the supply dispatch of power plants in Negros and Panay to avoid overloading,” he said, adding that “through this, the excess supply would not be that much and will be sufficient only for the capacity of its submarine cables.”
