The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has tapped Japanese firm Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd., together with local contractor SL Development Construction Corporation (SLDCC), for the construction of a submarine power transmission line that will connect the grid firm’s substations in Cebu City on mainland Cebu and Lapu-Lapu City on Mactan Island.

Based on a report by The Philippine Star, NGCP awarded the consortium the ¥4.3 billion (around Php1.9 billion) project, which is scheduled for delivery and completion in 2023. 

The grid firm said that the project is designed consistently with its long-term plan of developing a 230-kilovolt (kV) transmission backbone in the Visayas, adding that a portion of the transmission corridor will be designed at 230kV voltage level but will be initially energized at 238kV.

Furukawa Electric will be supplying 230kV AC XLPE-insulated 1600 mm2 triple-core submarine cables, which the company said is the world’s largest conductor size class submarine cable, cable temperature, and load monitoring system. 

SLDCC, one of NGCP’s leading contractors for transmission line and substation projects, will be building the said project. 

Furukawa Electric said that the submarine power transmission project would be able to support power transmission capacity and maintain the transmission of power to the major load centers in Mandaue City – also on mainland Cebu – and Mactan, even during an N-1 contingency condition or the ability of the grid to withstand a major power disturbance through redundancies. 

N-1 refers to the grid’s ability to withstand a major power disturbance through redundancies in the system. NGCP said that its load centers in Mandaue and Mactan – both major industrial areas – do not have N-1 contingency provisions. Lapu-Lapu City also hosts the Mactan-Cebu International Airport and other major tourist facilities.

Should an outage occur in one of the Cebu-Mandaue-Lapu-Lapu transmission corridor’s two 138kV circuits, the remaining one would be overloaded. In turn, this would lead to curtailment of power to prevent damage to equipment.