December 4, 2019 | 12:08pm
MANILA, Philippines — The National Transmission Commission (Transco) opposed the claims of the National Grid Corporation (NGCP) that the Philippines' power grid cannot be shut down remotely.
NGCP spokesperson Cynthia Alabanza earlier said there is no proverbial red button that can shut off the country's power infrastructure.
Transco president and CEO Melvin Matibag, however, said this was a lie, pointing out that the NGCP's Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system is being controlled remotely.
"That's why it's supervisory — it's being done remotely... It's not true that you have to turn off the switch one-by-one to do that," Matibag told ANC's "Headstart" Wednesday.
This was in response to the remarks of the NGCP that shutting down the Philippines' power grid would involve manually closing each breaker in each of the over 200 substrations all over the country.
Asked if the NGCP system can be hacked, Matibag answered, "Yes. It is vulnerable."
"That's the reason why we want an audit. We want to subject their system to a vulnerability assessment penetration test," Matibag said.
The Transco president, however, explained that the country's power grid can be hacked by any foreign entity and not only China.
Matibag cited the December 2015 Ukraine power grid cyberattack as an example which was the first publicly-acknowledged incident that resulted in power outages.
"In fact when that happened the US government made a statement that one of the sytems — the SCADA system — the most high tech is the one from Ukraine and imagine it was shut down so that means it's possible," Matibag said.
"I'm not only referring to China. I'm referring to any foreign individual or entity that can do this foolishness," he added.
On concerns about the stake of China's State Grid Corporation on the NGCP, Matibag insisted that China still holds the majority in the privately owned consortium that runs the country's power grid.
While it is true that China's State Grid owns 40% of the NGCP, the 60% owned by Filipinos are still divided into two with 30% or each entity.
Matibag also noted that NGCP chairman Zhu Guangchao is a Chinese national.
The Transco chief also denied the claims of NGCP's Alabanza that the Chinese partner is only granted remote access for repairs and is done on a test environment.
"There's a problem there that is why that is not true. When you have a problem with the grid, something happens, do you have to test it first then mimic it? You go to a test, you diagnose it immediately," Matibag said.
The Transco chief recalled that when there was an issue with the power grid in 2003, it was diagnosed and repaired remotely from Florida, US.
Matibag said Albanza's claim that shutting off the 200 substations manually is "jurassic" as the power grid can be controlled through transmission facilties with the use of the internet.
"Inside the transmission line there are fiber optics which is being used for the SCADA to communicate from one substation from one transformer to another transformer up to the control center," Matibag said.
The Chinese government earlier said reports that it can remotely shut off the Philippine power grid is baseless.
"The allegation of China's control over the Philippines' power grid or threat to the country's national security is completely groundless," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang earlier said.
According to Geng, China's State Grid took part in the Transco project as a cooperation partner that provides electricity services.
"The project is now operated, managed and maintained by the Philippine side, with the Chinese partner offering necessary technical support upon request," Geng said.
