Transco vows to speed up Visayas power projects

The National Transmission Corp. (Transco) committed yesterday to fasttrack crucial infrastructure projects in the Visayas to boost the grid’s stability of power supply.

Transco president Alan T. Ortiz made this commitment as he prepared to take part in a series of consultations in Negros and Cebu starting today over the looming power crisis in the Visayas.

Ortiz said this is part of the comprehensive information campaign being undertaken by the Department of Energy, National Power Corp., and Transco in an effort to find solutions to the projected shortage of supply in the region by the second half of the year.

The information campaign will cover group feedback sessions in Cebu, Panay and Negros from July 22-24 and culminate in a power summit in Cebu on Friday, July 25.

"This trip underscores the firm commitment of Transco to find viable solutions to the supply problem looming in the Visayas," he said.

According to Ortiz, Transco is working double time to finish the vital transmission projects in the region even earlier than the committed schedules.

At present, Transco has six major transmission projects lined up in the region, including the $68.50 million Leyte-Cebu interconnection which is scheduled to be completed by December 2004. The electronic bidding for the turnkey contract for the project is set for July 30, 2003.

Ortiz said this project aims to increase the transfer capacity of the existing line by 200MW and in turn provide greater stability to the Cebu-Negros-Panay Power Grid by making available to Cebu the indigenous and cheaper geothermal power from Tongonan, Leyte.

Another project set for completion by the second quarter of next year is the Leyte-Bohol interconnection project aimed at increasing the transfer capacity of the line from the current 40MW to 100MW.

Ortiz said Transco is hastening the implementation of other projects such as the $40-million Cebu-Mactan line, the $48-million Negros-Panay uprating, the P2.5-billion Negros-Cebu project and the $354-million Leyte-Mindanao project. These projects are scheduled for completion in 2005-2006, except for Leyte-Mindanao which has not been committed for implementation until 2011.