PH power grid ‘highway’ online for stable supply

MANILA, Philippines — The country now has a unified power highway with the activation of the P52-billion Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project (MVIP), finally enabling electricity supply from generation plants anywhere in the country to be distributed across the archipelago’s three main island groups.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), the private firm operating and developing the government’s power grid—the interconnected network of distribution and transmission lines that deliver electricity from producers to consumers—on Wednesday confirmed it had switched on the MVIP, which is expected to improve power stability and reliability nationwide.

According to NGCP, an initial load of 22.5 megawatts was carried by a high-voltage submarine cable, which transmits power underwater, and overhead lines from Mindanao to Visayas on April 30.

“We expect to gradually increase the MVIP’s transfer capacity to 50 MW by mid-May, and 112 MW by the end of the month, before energizing to its full transfer capacity of 450 MW by the third quarter of this year,” NGCP said in a statement.

At such a maximum load, it is estimated to provide electricity to as many as 450,000 households.

Prior to the MVIP opening, Mindanao had a separate power grid, which meant it sourced its needs locally, incapable of transmitting electricity to or getting additional supply from Luzon and the Visayas.

The MVIP connects the Mindanao grid to the Visayas transmission network, which has been connected to the Luzon grid since 1998 through a transmission line and submarine cable between Naga in the Bicol region and Ormoc in Leyte.

The Department of Energy (DOE) said the project, which began construction in 2018 and started testing the power lines last March, would help ensure adequate electricity by boosting supply anywhere in the country.