2 Napocor power plants still off Mindanao grid after NGCP tower bombed

KIDAPAWAN CITY – Two state-owned power plants in a remote town in Lanao del Sur are still offline some two week after a transmission tower was toppled down in Marawi City, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said on Wednesday.

The transmission lines connecting the Agus-1 and Agus-2 hydro-electric power plants to the Mindanao grid are still down, said Milfrance Capulong, communications officer of NGCP-Southwest Mindanao

The power plants owned and operated by the National Power Corporation (Napocor) have a combined capacity of 200 megawatts.

Capulong noted the transmission tower was bombed some two week ago, prompting the NGCP to implement emergency measures by rerouting the transmission of power from affected part of the grid to minimize the impact on consumers.

“This is economic sabotage.  This does not only affect our company but all the power consumers in Mindanao,” she said.

Restoring power in Lanao del Sur will take time and cost millions of pesos, she noted.

“Whatever the costs that would be incurred in the restoration will be passed on to power consumers through the distribution utilities, Capulong said.
"This is part of the system loss... that every time a tower is toppled down, the consumers are always at a losing end,” she added.

Grid operator NGCP has to shoulder the repair and rehabilitation of transmission lines and tower, after which the company would have to get an approval from Energy Regulatory Commission to recover the cost by passing it on to power consumers

Motive unknown

The NGCP has yet to get the results of a police investigation and the reason behind the bombing.

“Although this is a very sensitive issue, the motive, however, is not yet established. True, there are security concerns in North Cotabato and Lanao del Sur but we have support from the police and military to ensure the safety of our facilities,” Capulong noted.

There are areas, however, that must first be secured by the police and military before the NGCP crew could come in. – VS, GMA News