The Case for Moving Now

 

Editor’s Note:  This is Part 2 of a two-part series on connecting Catanduanes’ power grid to Luzon. Part 1 appeared last week.

 

The argument for a submarine cable from Luzon to Catanduanes has always been strong on paper. Catanduanes pays some of the most expensive electricity rates precisely because it is an isolated island system — heavily reliant on expensive diesel generation coupled with no competitive market pressure and no backup when the primary supplier falters. Consumers on the island pay around ₱14.50 per kilowatt-hour on average, a rate that reflects the high cost of off-grid power. Presumably, connection to Luzon would lower prices.

On this point, TransCo, the government entity that owns all of the nation’s power assets, noted that island interconnection would benefit power consumers nationwide, because FICELCO, which manages power distribution in the province, would no longer collect missionary electrification subsidies that appear on every Filipino’s electric bill as a universal charge.

In other words, taxpayers and ratepayers across the country are already subsidizing the additional costs of Catanduanes’ isolation, and the cable would reduce that.

Beyond economics, the SUWECO financial collapse has exposed something more fundamental: the danger of an entire province depending on a single private power company whose owner is on the lam and facing criminal allegations. A grid connection would end that vulnerability permanently. Even if SUWECO were to vanish entirely, a connected Catanduanes could draw power from dozens of generators across Luzon.

 

What Needs to Happen

For the project to move forward, several things must occur in sequence. The Energy Regulatory Commission must grant the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines formal authority to proceed — the grid operator has been seeking this since 2022. Financing must be secured, whether through government appropriation, a sovereign bond, or a public-private arrangement. Right-of-way permits must be obtained for the land-side transmission corridor through Camarines Sur, which historically has caused delays. The submarine cable itself must be procured through international competitive bidding, as specialized marine cable-laying vessels and high-voltage submarine cables are manufactured by only a handful of companies worldwide.

NGCP has said it needs 48 months — four years — from the date of approval to complete the project.

That is not an unusually long timeline for infrastructure of this complexity, but it does mean that even if all approvals and financing were secured today, Catanduanes still would not see grid power until mid-2030 at the earliest. The island cannot wait for years in crisis mode. In the short term, alternative emergency power arrangements — whether through National Power Corp. takeover of generation, emergency procurement of barge-mounted power plants, or rehabilitation of existing SUWECO assets — will be needed to bridge the gap.

The NPC is a government-owned corporation whose duty is “missionary electrification” — providing electricity to far flung, off-grid areas like Catanduanes.

Engineers designing the land-side transmission towers have already specified that steel posts must be engineered to withstand 300-kilometer-per-hour winds, reflecting Catanduanes’ status as one of the most typhoon-prone places on earth. That engineering caution is wise, but it also adds to cost and procurement time. Every component of this project must be built to survive the worst that the Pacific can throw at it.

 

A Model for the Nation

The SUWECO crisis has made visible what energy planners have long known: The archipelago’s off-grid islands are acutely vulnerable. NGCP has in recent years completed major milestones in grid unification, including the Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project in January 2024 — the achievement of a unified Philippine Grid across the three main island groups. Catanduanes, Palawan, and Mindoro remain the most significant gaps in that unified system.

For Catanduanes specifically, the submarine cable is not a luxury. It is a long-term structural solution that every other fix — emergency generators, temporary supply agreements, government subsidies — can only approximate.

The cable has been designed. The route has been surveyed. The cost has been estimated. What remains is the political will.

 

 

Bryce McIntyre, PhD, resides in San Andres. He holds a doctoral degree from Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, USA.

Claude AI was employed in research for this article.