Accountability sought over delayed transmission project

The Iloilo Grain Complex Corp. or IGCC over the weekend said the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines or NGCP should be accountable for the delay in its proposed 138-kiloVolt or kV Panay-Guimaras Interconnection Project.

In a statement, IGCC said the NGCP should instead follow expropriation rules and secure necessary permits from the Energy Regulatory Commission or ERC. 

"Records will show that from the start it was NGCP that caused the delay of its project. It did not secure the required ERC permit; failed to make a genuine just compensation offer to IGCC; and refused to consider cheaper and more practical right-of-way alternatives," IGCC spokesperson Toby Tañada said.

NGCP secured an expropriation order and writ of possession from the Iloilo Regional Trial Court or RTC Branch 33 in September 2022 to build two tower sites inside IGCC's property that will link its transmission lines to a submarine cable connecting Iloilo and Guimaras Island.

However, IGCC questioned the RTC's ruling and secured a temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court in April barring NGCP from taking possession of the food company's property.

"The highest court of the land has spoken and all parties need to respect and abide by the Supreme Court ruling," Tañada stressed. 

He added that IGCC has proposed a more economically viable option for the project.

According to IGCC, it recommended that the existing 69kV line share posts, structures, and right of way or ROW since it can be "underbuilt" under the proposed 138kV transmission line, he said.

Underbuilt overhead transmission systems are typically resorted to when there are constraints or limitations in the ROW, which result in much lesser costs due to lesser ROW acquisition requirements and the sharing of posts or structures between two transmission or distribution lines, he explained.

For instance, the La Trinidad-Loakan 69 kV line in Benguet, the Bacolod-San Enrique and Bacolod-Alijis 69kV transmission line in Negros, and NGCP's Ormoc-Maasin 138kV transmission line and 69kV in Leyte used underbuilt transmission systems.

Additionally, IGCC said its sister company, La Filipina Uy Gongco Corp., will not object to the proposed alternative transmission line route that traverses its property.