The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said it has energized the 230-kiloVolt (kV) Cebu-Bohol Interconnection, which is another landmark project.
The project will address the growing power demand in Bohol, while providing more resiliency for the Bohol grid, and improving the operational flexibility of the Cebu transmission system, the NGCP said.
“The Cebu-Bohol Interconnection Project (CBIP) will play a crucial role in improving transmission services and grid stability in Central Visayas. It will also help improve the transmission highway in Cebu, the load center of Visayas, with a new line to transmit power in and out of the province,” NGCP said.
The CBIP, with Line 1 energized on 16 July 2024 and Line 2 fully energized on 27 September 2024 with a capacity of 1,200 MegaWatts, is a new transmission facility that involves connections in Argao, Cebu, and Maribojoc, Bohol via 54.6 circuit-kilometers of submarine cables crossing the Bohol Strait, and 97.6 circuit-kilometers of transmission lines comprised of 179 overhead towers from Argao to the Dumanjug Substation in Cebu, and from Maribojoc to the Corella Substation in Bohol.
The line will help provide N-1 contingency in the province in the event of an outage of the existing Leyte-Bohol line, NGCP said. N-1 contingency refers to the grid’s ability to withstand a major system disturbance through redundancies in the system, thus mitigating any possibility of island isolation.
“The CBIP is part of a long-term plan to provide a 230kV loop covering Leyte, Cebu, and Bohol. With its completion, the CBIP will now provide a new transmission corridor, thereby improving grid stability, security, and reliability for everyone’s benefit,” the NGCP emphasized.
The project was filed with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in 2017 and subsequently refiled in 2019 to update the components and cost, but was given provisional approval only on 9 January 2022 with a cost of P19.76 billion.
“While there were some difficulties with permitting from local government units and several landowners in terms of right-of-way acquisition, the support and cooperation of national and local government agencies and stakeholders were vital to expediting the project’s completion and energization, which in turn will help improve transmission services in the region,” the NGCP stated.
The power transmission operator recently completed several big-ticket projects, including the Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project (MVIP), the Cebu-Negros-Panay (CNP) Backbone Project, and the Mariveles-Hermosa-San Jose (MHSJ) 500kV Transmission Line, fulfilling its commitment to the country and the consumers.
“Through proper support from the government, timely permitting process, and industry-centric policies, we can achieve more to ensure a stable and resilient network that will greatly benefit our nation,” the NGCP said.
