Power consumers in the off-grid island of Mindoro may soon be relieved from weathering the high power prices and lingering brownouts as the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines or NGCP rushes to finish its long-delayed transmission project that will link the province to the main grid by 2025.
In an interview with reporters on Wednesday, Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina L. Guevara said the NGCP, the country's lone transmission system operator, agreed to fast-track the project implementation following prodding from the national government.
Mindoro will be connected to the main grid through Batangas province, which already has sufficient backbone structures to facilitate the seamless interconnection.
"The NGCP agreed to finish the project in two years; that will scrap the 20 percent UCME (Universal Cost for Missionary Electrification) in Mindoro. The completion of the project will be advanced to 2025 because we (the DoE) requested it and NGCP was cooperative about it," Guevara told reporters.
The Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001, or the Republic Act No. 9136, permits UCME collection to finance the operations of the National Power Corp. or NPC, including its small power utilities group or SPUG, that caters to unconnected areas in remote locations.
The NPC-SPUG, on the other hand, pays the difference between the True Cost of Generation Rate.
Once Mindoro island is linked to the national grid, it can easily access surplus power supply from other islands; therefore cutting the likelihood of recurring power cuts plaguing the province.
The NGCP had previously proposed to build a power network connecting off-grid islands to the main Luzon grid — it included the plan to construct the Batangas-Mindoro interconnection project worth P16.87 billion.
Meanwhile, the DOE had already committed to ensure the implementation of policies pushing for off-grid development such as off-grid electrification, Renewable Portfolio Standards for off-grid, and omnibus guidelines in enhancing off-grid power development, are properly enforced.
Under the national energy plan, the government is vying to improve the market's ability to coordinate investment in generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure and achieve total electrification across the country.
It will also facilitate the upgrading and modernization of transmission and distribution lines to support the efficient transition to cleaner energy.
Likewise, it vowed to resolve transmission congestion, especially between Luzon and the Visayas grid, whether by adding transmission lines or avoiding subsidies that cause the build-up of excess capacity.