NGCP allays fears over China control of power grid

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) has allayed fears that China’s grid operator might have the capability to remotely shut down the Philippines’ power infrastructure following leaked reports to lawmakers.

“There is nothing to be alarmed about the stake by the State Grid Corp. of China (SGCC) in NGCP as its investment is limited only to being a technical adviser,” said NGCP president and chief executive officer Anthony Almeda.

SGCC has 40 percent stake in NGCP, while the controlling 60 percent still belongs to Filipino companies Monte Oro Grid Resources Corp. and Calaca High Power Corp. with 30 percent each.

As such, SGCC has only three nominees who sit as members of the NGCP board of directors representing the company and proportionate to its capital shares.

“SGCC serves only as the technical adviser of the consortium, but the management and the control of NGCP, including its systems operation, are exclusively exercised by Filipinos,” Almeda said.

In a report by CNN, an internal report prepared for lawmakers revealed that China controls the Philippine power grid, raising national security concerns to which lawmakers called for an immediate probe.

In particular, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian – who chairs the Senate Committee on Energy – filed a resolution, directing his committee to scrutinize the compliance of NGCP on its mandate to safeguard the grid and ensure continuous electricity supply.

He also called on the Joint Congressional Energy Commission (JCEC) – the country’s primary watchdog in the power sector – to look into the operations of the country’s transmission line to verify whether Filipinos are in charge of its day-to-day management.

Almeda, however, noted that the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), the system that controls the grid, is operated only by authorized Filipino technical experts of NGCP.

“By default, SCADA is disconnected from the Virtual Private Network (VPN); thus, remote users cannot connect to

SCADA,” Almeda said, pointing out that “VPN access may

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