NGCP Investing P269M For Substations

Private firm concessionaire National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) will be investing P269 million to install additional capacitor banks at various high-voltage buses of substations in the Luzon grid. The project will cover the installation of shunt reactors in the Naga substation and capacitor banks in other substations, like those in Dona Imelda, Cabanatuan, Marilao and Muntinlupa. "The equipment is expected to benefit not only the substation supporting the installation, but the neighboring substations as well," the company has emphasized. NGCP has explained that the shunt reactor in Naga will "address the overvoltage problem experienced in the area during off-peak load condition with Tiwi plant at minimum generation." The transmission firm pointed out that the reactors will similarly ease overvoltage dilemmas with the switching of the filters of Leyte-Luzon high voltage direct current (HVDC) station in Naga City. These substation network improvements in the Luzon grid have started in December 2011 and due for completion by the first quarter of 2013. "The capacitor components of the voltage improvement project in the four substations will improve the voltage profile during normal conditions and address the potential undervoltage during contingencies," NGCP has reiterated. It has noted that the HVDC transmission system which is currently the line linking Luzon and Visayas grids is considerably the initial "bridge" in the broader goal of eventually setting up a single national grid. The transmission line interconnection being pursued next will be the Leyte-Mindanao link up to finally connect the southernmost grid to the two others. Studies were already carried out on the Leyte-Mindanao interconnection but the availability of generation capacities in both grids are also being re-assessed to determine if the project would be viable for implementation. (MMV)