The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines successfully energized the P52 billion Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project (MVIP), a landmark undertaking that will improve power stability and reliability across the country, the NGCP announced Thursday, May 4.
An initial load of 22.5 MegaWatts (MW) was carried by the high voltage submarine and overhead lines from Mindanao to Visayas during its energization on April 20.
“We expect to gradually increase the MVIP’s transfer capacity to 50MW by mid-May, and 112MW by the end of the month, before energizing to its full transfer capacity of 450MW by the third quarter of this year,” the company explained.
The MVIP is comprised of a 184 circuit-kilometer (ckm) High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) submarine transmission line connecting the power grids of Mindanao and Visayas with a transfer capacity of 450MW expandable to as much as 900MW, NGCP said in a press release.
The project also includes converter stations in both regions and more than 500ckm of overhead lines to
facilitate the flow of electricity, it added.
The MVIP will benefit consumers by providing them a more reliable and sustainable power transmission service that will lessen the instances of power interruptions. It will also promote energy resource sharing, as excess power generated in one region can now be transmitted to the other, NGCP said.
“The completion of the Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project is a significant achievement for us and for the Philippines as a whole. This will not only improve the reliability of our transmission services but will lead to efficient energy utilization as one Philippine grid,” it added.*