ERC to complete audit on NGCP in Q3

COVID-19 restrictions and the lack of manpower further delayed the audits being done on the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) by another year, the Energy Regulatory Commission said.

ERC chairperson Agnes Devanadera said consultants for the NGCP audit have started to submit initial reports on the audit, which is expected to be completed by the third quarter.

“These are not official conclusions or the official position of the commission and therefore we will treat them first as confidential until such time the commission has passed on these things,” she said.

The consultants will have to make a final presentation to the commission after completing the audits.

“We expect everything in by August or September,” the ERC chief said.

The results of the audit are necessary for the final determination of the NGCP’s fourth and fifth regulatory periods (RPs), which have been longdelayed. The fourth RP covers 2016 to 2020 while the fifth RP covers 2021 to 2025.

Delays in the audit were due to the fact that the ERC needed to hire consultants to do the technical and system security audits given the agency’s lack of manpower.

Devanadera said funding for the consultancy services came from the P50 million grant from Congress as pushed by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian. Congress decided to provide the budget since the previous audits were shouldered by the NGCP.

However, the commission needed to go through a procurement process to secure contracts for consulting services. Last year, the ERC bid out contracts for the technical operations and system security audit.

The COVID-19 restrictions also prevented the consultants to conduct physical inspections of NGCP facilities.

The technical audit would cover procedures, processes and systems being employed by NGCP through its organizational units.

Meanwhile, the system security audit would cover the review and determine NGCP’s existing transmission assets/infrastructure network including IT assets and resources, governance and management.

This aims to determine the security of the national transmission grid’s infrastructure amid physical and virtual threats, assess vulnerability risks, review compliance to other existing international standards, regulations, industry best practices, and formulate action plans to ensure grid security aimed at protecting public interest and national security.

The technical and system security reviews comprise the second and third part of the three-phased NGCP audit in its compliance, system process, procedure and information technology review including communications.

The first phase covered the review on NGCP’s compliance to the standards prescribed under the Philippine Grid Code (PGC) and other rules and regulations, which was conducted by Navarro, Amper & Co.

The Department of Energy and National Transmission Corp. (TransCo) have called for the full audit of the NGCP due to national security concerns.