The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has appealed for both national and local government support in the execution of its mandate to complete the P14 billion project known as the Batangas-Mindoro Interconnection Project (BMIP) as scheduled.
While emphasizing its determination to pursue the project to its logical end, the NGCP said the project’s abbreviated completion date amounts to “an almost impossible deadline.”
“We understand and support the direction of the DOE in these and other critical projects. There is zero room for any delay with the usual chokepoints, right-of-way and the issuance of permits from local governments and other government agencies… It’s an almost impossible deadline, but NGCP, as always, will do its best,” NGCP said.
This relates to the Department of Energy mandate to complete in only two years the BMIP project or by December 2025 instead of September 2027 in the original schedule.
NGCP said it only received provisional approval from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in February this year to implement the BMIP with a budget of P14.03 billion.
“In our 2023 application filed at the ERC, the timeline we indicated was 2027, already tight with respect to projects of this magnitude,” it said in a statement.
According to NGCP, transmission line projects in developed countries such as the United States, Australia and parts of Europe, require anywhere between seven to ten years to build.Cynthia Alabanza, NGCP spokesperson, also said in a briefing in San Juan City Wednesday the company “will do what is humanly possible” to comply with the December 2025 timeline but cited “third-party dependencies” beyond its control that could wreck the timeline.
NGCP said it already relayed concerns to the DOE on the support it needs as to right-of-way acquisition and processing of permits from local government units and other government agencies.
“Assuming the project incurs no delay in permitting and right of way, and assuming no restraining orders are issued against the project by the courts, the timeline imposed by the DOE is still very tight even with government support. (But) we will exert all efforts to finish the project at the soonest time possible,” NGCP emphasized.
It also said even before ERC approval, the NGCP undertook pre-construction activities as topographic surveys of the submarine cable and cable terminal station sites, marine and hydrographic surveys as well as route survey of the 230kV and 69kV overhead transmission line.
NGCP originally applied to undertake the project in 2011 with the master plan of connecting the off-grid islands to the main transmission grid refiled in 2021 but approved only in February this year.
But completing the BMIP will reduce by at least 20 percent the universal charge for missionary electrification (UCME) collected from consumers connected to the national grid.
The UCME charge of P0.2233 per kilowatt hour subsidizes the operations of Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG) plants located in islands and communities not connected to the main transmission grid.
Regulations mandate that once an area is connected to the main grid, it no longer benefits from the UCME subsidy.
