National Grid Corp of the Philippines connect GN Power’s 600 MW plant to the grid
According to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), GN Power Ltd.’s new 600-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant has received a new transmission line that will transmit the additional 600-MW capacity that GN Power is planning to produce on top of its current 600-MW capacity.
The new transmission line, a 230-kiloVolt (kV) line from Mariveles to Limay, Bataan, was completed on January 21 at an estimated cost of P229 million.
It spans 38 circuit kilometers (ckm) and connects the new coal-power plant to the Luzon grid via the Bataan Combined Cycle Power Plant (BCCPP) Station B in Limay.
The NGCP said in a statement that the transmission line project, properly called the Mariveles Coal Transmission Reinforcement Project, was built to accommodate the additional capacity from GN Power, and also serve the Pan Asia power plant located in Limay town.
The project involved three components: building the new Mariveles-BCCPP 230-kV line; re-conductoring of the existing Limay-Hermosa 230-kV line; and upgrading of the Limay substation.
In August last year, the NGCP also completed a temporary bypass line to connect the coal power plant to the grid while the permanent line—the Mariveles-BCCPP line—was under construction.
Line 2 of the Mariveles-BCCPP line was finally energized on December 23, 2012, while Line 1 was energized on January 21 this year.
The NGCP, which is the country’s sole electric transmission service provider, is also undertaking a re-conductoring project of the Hermosa-BCCPP B 230-kV line, which is almost 90 ckm in length.
This is being done to increase the line’s capacity because it will also carry the load of the new coal-fired generation plant in addition to the existing 300-MW load of the BCCPP Station B.
At the same time, the tie-line between Limay Substation and BCCPP Station A, which is a back-to-back transmission line where the flow of electricity is two-way, is being upgraded to increase capacity.
Meanwhile, the upgrading of the Limay substation will allow the full dispatch of the 600-MW load of the GN Power coal plant.
The NGCP said the projects are being undertaken “to ensure that the NGCP is compliant with its task to guarantee that the whole grid operations remain uninterrupted even if one major component malfunctions.”
