The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has assured end-users the upgrading of its San Jose substation in Bulacan will not trigger power outages in Metro Manila and nearby areas.

NGCP, however, cautioned though that the temporary shutdown of the San Jose substation’s transformer (T01), which is set for replacement, would reduce the facility’s transfer rate.

“Power customers can still expect continuous service and no outages during the said period with the full dispatch of Malaya and Limay plants,” the company noted, banking on the commitments given by the two plants’ operators – Korea Electric Power Corporation and San Miguel Energy Corporation, respectively.

The transmission firm advised that repair works for the San Jose Transformer Upgrade Program will run for one month from July 4 to August 4 this year. It covers replacement of another 600 megavolt ampere transformer with a new 750 MVA.

“The temporary shutdown and replacement of T01 will reduce the transfer capacity of the substation from 1,960 megavolt ampere (MVA) to 1,540 MVA,” the company added.

NGCP blamed generation deficiency as the cause of rotating brownouts in the past months.

But other industry players are tossing part of the blame on the system operator for its scheduled repair works and there have also been times that its facilities broke down, hence, exacerbating occurrences of power outages.

NGCP said the upgrade of T01 is pursued following the successful completion of repair works at T02 around April this year. There have been lull in maintenance and upgrade works in power facilities in the past two months to ensure continuous power supply during the national elections.

The company explained it opted to schedule the next round of upgrade for July, deeming it to be a perfect timing given “low system demand.”

Upon the project’s completion, NGCP indicated that “power customers in the Luzon power grid, especially in Metro Manila, are expected to benefit from the transformer upgrade program as this would ultimately increase San Jose substation capacity from 2,400 MVA to 3,000 MVA.”

Once the transformers are energized as expected next month, NGCP said “power generating plants in Luzon passing through the 500-kilovolt transmission backbone will be able to resume full dispatch of electricity.”

It can be recalled that when the San Jose substation broke down in 2009, the remedial measures enforced by the system operator set off spikes in electricity rates that price intervention was again imposed in the electricity spot market.

To prevent similar situation from recurring in the future, NGCP gave word that “it will put in place more reliable substations and high voltage power lines to improve the transmission system throughout the country.”