Transco power delivery up in 2006

The power service delivery of the National Transmission Corp. (Transco) slightly increased in 2006, GMANews.TV learned Sunday. Transco, the agency in charge of the country's power transmission network, has delivered a total of 105,228.4 megawatt-months of power to the country’s major electricity grids in 2006, a 3% increase over the year-ago level of 102,186.8 MW-months, its president Arthur N. Aguilar said. Power delivery measured in megawatt-months refers to the sum of Transco’s monthly billing demands for 2006. Data from the company showed that power transmitted to the Luzon grid reached 78,413.9 MW-months, a modest 2.9% increase from the previous year’s level of 76,198.2 MW-months. Delivery to the Visayas and Mindanao grids, on the other hand, went up by 3.1% and 3.2%, respectively. Bulk or 77% of the total power transmitted by Transco came from Napocor and its independent power producers. The rest came from IPPs supplying electricity to Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and other generating units in Luzon and Visayas. Demand for power delivery service in the Meralco franchise area increased by 4.2% in 2006 from the previous year due to higher demand. Power delivery service in Luzon outside Meralco’s franchise area, however, registered a decrease of less than 1% in 2006. In the case of non-utility customers, power delivery service requirements decreased by 3.7%, largely due to lower power demand from most of Transco’s major customers in the cement, mining and chemical industries. Because of supertyphoons that hit the country in the second half of 2006, power delivery to distribution utility customers was almost flat, registering a less than 1% increase in 2006. Economic zones, notably the Subic Enerzone, Baguio Economic Zone and the Cavite Economic Zone all posted increases in demand requirements. In the Visayas grid, power delivery climbed 11,599.0 MW-months, up by 3.1% over the year-ago level. In the Mindanao grid, power delivery rose 3.2% to 15,215.6 MW-months due to the increase in industrial customers’ demand. Aguilar said the completion of crucial transmission projects in 2006 significantly helped improve power delivery service. Some of these completed projects are the San Roque-San Manuel 230-kilovolts (kv) project in Luzon; the second phase of the Babatngon Substation Expansion for the Leyte-Samar transmission project in Visayas and the Abaga-Marawi 69-kv Line 2 in Mindanao. - GMANews.TV