BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – The recent spate of blackouts have raised issues on the strength and the efficiency of power generation, and distribution.
Whenever there are power interruptions though — especially those that last half a day — consumers are often told that the 69KV line is down, or that “NGCP is doing maintenance work”.
What is NGCP? What is its role in power transmission and generation? What’s the 69KV line?
NGCP stands for National Grid Corporation of the Philippines. According to its official website, it is a privately owned corporation in charge of “operating, maintaining, and developing the country’s state-owned power grid, an interconnected system that transmits gigawatts of power at thousands of volts from where it is made to where it is needed”.
The the website says, is a “transmission service provider”, with the “crucial role of linking power generators and distribution utilities to deliver electricity where it is most needed”.
NGCP maintains a network of interconnected transmission towers and substations which serve as “highway where electricity travels from various energy sources to the smaller thoroughfares of distribution utilities and electric cooperatives until it reaches the households”.
In servicing power consumers, there are three steps before it reaches the households: generation (supply), transmission, and distribution.
NGCP provides the line between distribution and supply.
The 69KV line is low-voltage transmission line that transmits power to substations while the 138kv line is used to transmit power in bulk to huge power consumers.
Transmission lines, meanwhile, are sets of wires, called conductors, that carry electric power from generating plants to the substations that deliver power to customers.
Who are the NGCP?
The NGCP is a consortium, which means it is not owned by a single individual but by business partners and companies.
The NGCP, its website says, holds the 25-year concession contract and the 50-year franchise to operate the power transmission network.
It is comprised of Monte Oro Grid Resources Corp. led by Henry Sy, Jr., Calaca High Power Corporation led by Robert Coyiuto, Jr., and the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) as technical partner represented by Zhu Guangchao.
