The Iloilo Grain Complex Corp. (IGCC) has asked the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) again to consider rerouting a 1.7-kilometer stretch of power lines over a residential area instead of over an open space that the timber and agriculture support company has succeeded in tangling up with its successful bid to stop the enforcement of a writ of possession from the Supreme Court.
The IGCC and the NGCP have been at odds over where to locate the power lines and for how much the affected parties are to be compensated to allow the 138-kilovolt Panay-Guimaras interconnection project to proceed post haste.
The NGCP had said completing the Panay-Guimaras project is crucial to address the rising demand for power in Iloilo City and provide greater transfer capacity to and from Guimaras Island where renewable energy projects are being developed. Delay has set in as the Supreme Court has issued a temporary restraining order preventing NGCP from expropriating the property on the basis of an Iloilo Regional Trial Court Branch 33 order issued on 12 December 2022.
NGCP transmission lines were to stretch over 1.7-kilometers of open space that the IGCC wanted rerouted instead over a residential area and its residents rightfully compensated.
Toby Tañada, IGCC spokesperson, said in a statement over the weekend the NGCP “failed to make a genuine just compensation offer to IGCC and refused to consider cheaper and more practical right-of-way alternatives.”
Tañada said the IGCC has proposed for the new power lines to use the NGCP’s existing 69-kilovolt line in a shared arrangement known as an underbuilt to the proposed 138kV transmission line from Guimaras.
Tañada said underbuilt overhead transmission systems are used whenever constraints or limitations in the ROW arise.
According to him, the company’s sister firm, La Filipina Uy Gongco Corp., poses no objection to the proposed alternative transmission line that traverses its property.
NGCP earlier said the 138-kilovolt Panay-Guimaras interconnection has an applied budget of P3.01 billion that has yet to gain approval from the Energy Regulatory Commission and has a deadline of December 2024.
NGCP claimed advancing the project even without ERC approval and its budget still pending to assure continued and uninterrupted power services in Panay.
NGCP said it has fully complied with the requisites of the writ of possession order and continues to reach out to IGCC for an expeditious and amicable settlement.
But it hesitates to push ahead with the IGCC proposal to re-route through a residential area directly traversing five households as opposed to the open area traversed by the current route but the subject of a WOP.
NGCP said any deviation in the established route also affect adjacent towers and cause further delay to the completion of the project.
