The interconnection of the country's three power grids may take a backseat as the Department of Energy (DOE) said the private operator first has to improve operations in Mindanao, which is suffering from outages. DOE Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) has to address problems besetting its Mindanao operations before it can proceed with the implementation of the Leyte-Mindanao Interconnection Project (LMIP). ”Between that (LMIP) and fixing the Mindanao grid because of the low voltage problems that are affecting the metering there – I'd rather the immediate investments for Mindanao be in enhancing the existing grid in Mindanao,” he said. NGCP bagged the state-owned National Transmission Corp.'s (TransCo) 25-year concession to operate and manage the country's power transmission lines, which is the virtual highway that brings electricity from power plants to households and businesses. The LMIP was one of TransCo's key projects as it would help secure the country's power supply by allowing electricity surplus in one grid to be shifted to deficient grids. “There's a bigger problem in Mindanao and the LMIP is not the immediate solution to it. So I would rather push for other options,” Almendras said. Distribution utilities in Mindanao earlier criticized the NGCP for voltage problems that have disrupted their metering of customers. In addition, the company also has a number of transmission line projects in Mindanao – which has the most number of impoverished regions – that have yet to push through. Almendras said the DOE has instructed the NGCP to improve its Mindanao operations, including the transmission line that would link the island's cheap generating hydroelectric power plants in the north to growth centers in the south.
