CSG Completes the First Base Concrete Placement for MVIP’s Construction in the Philippines

Architectural Rendering of the Lala Converter Station in the MVIP

Cebu City, Philippines - As the base concrete placement of the Lala Converter Station in the Philippines was recently poured, the Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project (MVIP), which will unify all three grids of the Philippines, has entered its main building construction phase.

The Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project, is China Southern Power Grid’s first international general contracting project where CSG has taken a leading role.

According to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, the completed project will provide the Philippines with one central power grid with the completion of Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project.

The project will use the high-voltage DC (HVDC) system that will have an initial capacity of 450 megawatts. The MVIP will have a 355-kilometer submarine cable link that can carry 450MW from the converter station in Dumanjug, Cebu, to the Lala, Zamboanga del Norte converter station.

The MVIP was contracted on November 9, 2018 by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines to transmit direct current across the South China Sea from the Visayas to Mindanao in the Philippines.

The project is conducted by an alliance formed by three power companies from China, namely: China Southern Power Grid; the Power Construction Corporation of China and the Xian Electric Engineering Co., Ltd.

The tri-company alliance is slated to build two ±350 kV converter stations, two direct current grounding poles and five alternating current transformer substations in the Philippines. The Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project is scheduled to complete the system combined debugging in December 2020 with trial operations by December 2021.

In the face of tight schedules, structural complexity of the direct current systems and varied challenges, CSG’s national competitiveness, its business platform and value chain integration are being fully exploited by the project department of the alliance to meet its on-time schedule.

The Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project Department has integrated resources of general design, engineering design, equipment manufacturing and engineering construction; it has optimized the process of the project to greatly improve the efficiency of construction.

Nevertheless, the project department is strictly complying with the local laws and regulations of the Philippines, ensuring that all elements, including personnel documentation, material supply, machinery and equipment installation, is professionally prepared and organized.

The first base concrete placement for the project’s construction was completed with safety and the highest standards of quality.