ZAMBOANGA CITY — The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) is pushing for the Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project (MVIP) to improve Mindanao’s power situation.
During a media forum here on Friday, Arnaldo Claudio, NGCP’s construction projects manager for the MVIP, said the implementation of the project will commence next year and will be completed in December 2020.
Claudio said the interconnection will be made possible through a submarine power cable from Santander in Cebu to Barangay Tagulo, Dapitan City in the province of Zamboanga del Norte.
“More or less it’s a 92-kilometer submarine cable,” Claudio said of the interconnection project that will traverse underwater as deep as 650 meters.
Claudio said the Philippines will have one power grid system once the MVIP is completed since the Luzon and Visayas regions are already interconnected through the submarine cable system.
He said the advantage of a unified grid system is that there will lesser power interruption nationwide and maximum use of energy.
“Once this MVIP is completed, there will be sharing of available and reliable power within the three major islands of the Philippines–Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao–and vice-versa,” Claudio said.
The MVIP will directly traverse 35 barangays across the four provinces in Visayas and Mindanao.
Claudio said the NGCP considers the MVIP as a major project and was certified by the Department of Energy (DOE) “as an energy project of national significance.”
“This is the largest transmission undertaking in the country’s history. The benefits to the public will come not just when the facility is energized and begins to facilitate power exchange across the three main island groups, but will begin encouraging economic activity in remote areas as soon as construction begins,” the NGCP said. (Teofilo Garcia, Jr/PNA)
