The two remaining transmission line sections of the Catanduanes island grid will be completed within four to six years to provide very stable power to consumers, the National Power Corporation vowed last week.
This was announced by NPC Vice President for Power Engineering Services Atty. Rogel Teves during the ceremonial inauguration of the San Miguel-Viga 69KV Transmission Line, 3MVA Viga Substation, and the Palumbanes Island Solar PV-
“We will push through with the Caramoran 5MVA Substation, Codon-Caramoran 69 KV Transmission Line and the Viga-Panganiban-Caramoran 69 KV Transmission Line,” he declared, assuring local officials that he would fight in top management for the Catanduanes projects to materialize before he retires from his post.
He said this had been one of the instructions left to him by the late NPC President and Chief Executive Officer Pio Benavidez, a native of Bato town.
Electricity is now the fourth basic need beside food, clothing and shelter, Atty. Teves noted, recalling that he was still in Grade 4 when San Miguel town where he was born was finally energized.
The work then going on at the Balongbong mini-hydroelectric plant two years later left an indelible impression on him, he said.
The Napocor brass also thanked the contractors for the two projects – Hansei Corporation for the Viga Substation, SL Development Corporation for the San Miguel Viga transmission line and Greenheat Corporation for the Palumbanes Solar PV-Diesel Hybrid System – as well as Governor Joseph Cua, Vice Governor Peter Cua and municipal mayors for endorsing the projects in a fruitful collaborative effort between local government units and national government agencies.
For his part, NPC Vice President for Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG) Rene Barruela said that the twin projects will provide improved power quality to the Viga area especially in terms of service reliability.
“We are not stopping here as far as capital investments is concerned,” he stressed, cautioning however that this cannot be done overnight and would take several years more.
Engr. Edwin Tatel, NPC SPUG Department Manager for Luzon Operations, told the Tribune that route clearing operation is now ongoing for the San Andres-Caramoran transmission line, with the Caramoran 5MVA Substation to be constructed somewhere in the Sabloyon area where the Viga-Panganiban-Caramoran transmission line will connect.
VP Teves also said that for the Viga-Caramoran transmission line, he would not allow work to commence unless the permit to be secured from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is approved.
He bared that for less than one kilometer of the 23-kilometer San Miguel-Viga transmission line route that is covered by the Catanduanes Natural Park, NPC paid a total of P3.7 million as Forest Land Use Fees, with the approval of the permit itself taking about a year.
For the trees within the CNP that were cut in the construction of the transmission line, the state-owned power firm was also required to plant thousands of tree seedlings as replacement in sites identified by DENR, he added.
Along the Viga-Caramoran transmission line route, most of it is within the forest park so the land use fees to be paid will even be higher, Teves stated.
The completion of the island grid and the final substation is expected to significantly lower the grid’s systems loss, a component of the electric bill paid by consumers that is the total energy purchased or generated minus the total energy sold.
Aside from power lost to pilferage, meter reading and billing errors, and meter tampering, the technical loss in a grid comes from physical delivery of electric energy like conductor loss or transformer core loss.
Aside from lowering or keeping systems loss at the minimum, the improvement of transmission lines and construction of substations improve the dispatch or transfer of electricity from the power plants to the electric cooperative’s distribution system.
Since the first week of June, the Catanduanes grid has been hit by rotating brownouts sometimes lasting for 12 hours due to defective gensets of Sunwest Water & Electricity Co. (SUWECO), the only power provider of the First Catanduanes Electric Cooperative, Inc. (FICELCO).
The local officials present – Viga Mayor Emeterio Tarin, San Miguel Mayor Francisco Camano Jr., Caramoran Mayor Glenda Aguilar, Baras Mayor Jose Paolo Teves III who represented TGP Congressman Jose Teves Jr., Viga Vice Mayor Jennifer Tuplano, Viga Councilor Gerardo Olfindo who represented Gov. Joseph Cua, and San Roque barangay captain Jennifer Alvarez – expressed the same sentiment as Cong. Eulogio Rodriguez, represented by district office chief Rudy Rojas Jr., that the NPC projects would somehow ease the suffering and inconvenience brought by the almost daily power interruptions and address the need for sustainable and reliable power supply.
Based on records, the Supply and Erection/Installation of San Miguel-Viga 69 KV Transmission Line Project was allocated a funding of P221,575,000.00 while the Supply, Delivery, Construction, Installation, Installation, Testing and Commissioning of the Viga 5MVA Substation was funded with P135,608,000.00, with both projects undergoing public bidding in 2021.