Visayas Energy Facilities Upgrade Completed

<..TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol - The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) announced that it has completed the upgrade of its Energy Management System (EMS) in the Visayas for this year, in line with its efforts to build a "stronger transmission for a stronger nation." This year's upgrade of System Operations facilities in the Visayas is part of a nationwide project that aims to improve the capability of NGCP's National Control Center with its Regional Control Centers. This project adopted the use of OPEN 3000, a state-of-the-art operating system that facilitates effective monitoring and control to ensure the balance of power supply and demand, said the NGCP. The upgrade was necessary to replace obsolete hardware and overloaded system software in order to increase system reliability and performance, provide complete system data by accommodating new stations, and integrate the electricity market functions into the EMS. The EMS integrates applications that are needed to manage the power transmission network. A major component of the EMS is its Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, which is a collection of equipment and software that facilitates control of remote devices, acquisition of real time data on power demand, capacity of connected power plants, and other power system parameters. The SCADA/EMS upgrade in Luzon and Visayas has a combined project cost of R189.4 million. The upgrade in Mindanao, where the regional control center has been moved from Iligan to Cagayan de Oro, cost R126.5 million. NGCP is a privately-owned corporation in charge of operating, maintaining, and developing the country's power grid. It transmits high-voltage electricity through "power superhighways" including an interconnected system of transmission lines and towers, substations and related assets.