The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) is a privately owned corporation that was established on January 15, 2009, through RA 9511. It is a consortium of three corporations, namely Monte Oro Grid Resources Corporation, Calaca High Power Corporation, and the State Grid Corporation of China.
As the franchise holder and transmission service provider, it is in charge of operating, maintaining, and developing the country's power grid and its related assets and facilities, controls the supply and demand of power by determining the power mix through the selection of power plants to put online (i.e., to signal power plants to produce power, as power plants will only produce power or feed their power to the transmission grid when directed by NGCP), updates the daily power situation outlook for Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao power grids (which can be seen on its Facebook page as well as on the business section of newspapers since March 2011 such as The Philippine Star, Philippine Daily Inquirer, and Manila Bulletin) by determining the available generating capacity, system peak demand, and operating margin (with operating margin is determined by subtracting the available generating capacity and system peak demand, and all of which are in units of MW or megawatts), and the temporary owner of grid portions and components having acquisition and designation made including those that are under its own plan of transmission projects turned over from the National Transmission Corporation (TransCo) to NGCP and not from the former's original version of the project since its establishment at the said date of January 2009.
As a common carrier, it must provide non-discriminatory access to its transmission system. It is subject to the standards set by the Philippine Grid Code and the Transmission Development Plan.
History 2001–2009: Power grid operations, maintenance, and expansion under Philippine government (NAPOCOR/NPC and TransCo) On June 8, 2001, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed RA 9136 (Electric Power Industry Reform Act), which introduced market competition in the energy sector and mandated the creation of National Transmission Corporation (TransCo) 18 days after the law was approved on June 26, 2001, originally as a child agency of another government-owned corporation National Power Corporation (NAPOCOR/NPC), with the latter operated, maintained and owned the country's power grid during that time therefore continuing to use its name as owner, before the transfer of the grid to the former on March 1, 2003, where TransCo then operated, maintained, constructed, expanded, and made eminent domain to the grid from March 2003 to January 15, 2009, independent from NAPOCOR/NPC.
On December 12, 2007, two consortia bid for a 25-year license to run the Philippine power grid - privatization of the management of TransCo. The consortium of Monte Oro Grid Resources Corp., led by businessman Enrique Razon, comprising the State Grid Corporation of China, and Calaca High Power Corp., won in an auction conducted by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) Corp. as it submitted the highest offer of $3.95 billion, for the right to operate TransCo for 25 years, outbidding San Miguel Energy, a unit of San Miguel Corporation (bid of $3.905 billion), Dutch firm TPG Aurora BV, and Malaysia's TNB Prai Sdn Bhd. Jose Ibazeta, PSALM president and CEO remarked: “We are very happy about the successful turnout of the bidding for TransCo. PSALM handled the privatization of the government’s transmission business with utmost transparency and judiciousness." This initiated the privatization process for the transmission sector.
On February 21, 2008, NGCP was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
On February 28, 2008, its concession agreement with TransCo was executed and became effective. The agreement between NGCP and TransCo was signed by TransCo president Arthur Aguilar, PSALM president Jose Ibazeta, and NGCP directors Walter Brown, Elmer Pedregosa and Du Zhigang.
Congress approved bicameral resolution granting franchise to NGCP to manage and operate its transmission facilities nationwide in November 2008.
On December 1, 2008, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed the RA 9511 which gives it the franchise to operate, maintain, and expand the transmission facilities of TransCo.
On January 15, 2009, NGCP took over the operations, maintenance, management, expansion, construction, and eminent domain of the national transmission system from TransCo which officially started the former to operate, maintain, manage, expand, construct, and acquire and designate lands for the transmission structures or components and rights-of-way (ROWs) for the power lines or their particular segments, with Walter A. Brown as the company's first president. This grants NGCP temporary ownership on anything it acquires and designated from the said date of January 2009, with TransCo retaining ownership for those before the date of turnover.
2009–present: Power grid operations, maintenance, and expansion under private sector As a result of the privatization of operations, maintenance, management, expansion, construction, and eminent domain of the country's power grid upon their turnover from TransCo to NGCP on January 15, 2009, NGCP revised and made its own plans for the unfinished parts of Projects Under Construction (PUC) that former power grid operator TransCo had not yet acquired and designated, with components and portions under it are under NGCP ownership temporarily, while those that are within the original plan remain with TransCo in accordance with the concession agreement between parties, creating temporary dual ownership over the grid where TransCo retains the pre-privatization while NGCP during its operational period.
On March 26, 2010, Roque Corpuz was appointed as the company's second president, replacing Walter A. Brown. Three months later on June 20 of that same year, Henry Sy Jr. became the third NGCP president.
On August 23, 2010, Department of Energy (DOE) issued Department Order DO2010-08-0015 creating a Technical Working Group to audit NGCP system operations.
In March 2011, the daily power situation outlook for Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao power grids started to be printed on business section of newspapers such as The Philippine Star, Philippine Daily Inquirer, and Manila Bulletin.
DOE issued its first Transmission Development Plan as power grid operator which is the 2009 TDP that would provide a guide for NGCP in improving the reliability of the electricity backbone on April 22, 2016. 2009 TDP contains some information made by TransCo, NGCP's predecessor in power grid operations and maintenance, such as the project components that were originally planned to be made on a particular transmission project before some or all components were changed, and revisions were made on a project when NGCP is now the power grid operator.
In May 2017, TransCo accused NGCP with violating its concession agreement with the power grid operator by supposedly making too much money from its operations of the country's electricity grid. Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea pointed out that, if indeed NGCP had violated the terms of its contract by profiting unduly from the operations of the power grid (e.g. allowing telecommunications firms to mount their fiber optic cables on the transmission towers) that the proper remedy would be for the government to dun NGCP for its share of the profits.
On March 7, 2018, Henry Sy Jr. resigned as president and CEO, with Chief Administrative Officer Anthony Almeda named as the company's new president.
On June 8, 2018, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), NGCP, and TransCo signed an agreement on Friday for a national broadband plan that will help accelerate internet connectivity nationwide. Under the agreement, the DICT will utilize TransCo's reserved optical fiber to distribute connectivity from Luzon to Mindanao using the submarine cables that will be laid down by Facebook from the United States to Asia. The agreement plans to expand the internet connectivity in public places for free by building an additional 200,000 access points nationwide by 2022, DICT Officer-In-Charge Eliseo Rio said.
On December 4, 2019, the Senate probed the delayed projects by NGCP as well as the already deferred initial public offering. On the same month, it was revealed by senator Risa Hontiveros that NGCP allowed suspicious Chinese nationals to “exercise leadership and management roles” within NGCP ranks and that 43 contracts were handed to Chinese firms under Duterte. She also raised alarm after discovering that under Duterte, the NGCP has become 40-percent owned by the State Grid Corporation of China.
In January 2025, the Maharlika Investment Corporation bought an 20% stake in the company for $350 million, which gave them two seats at the board of the NGCP as well as the Synergy Grid and Development Philippines Inc.
Notable projects 2009–present: Projects relating to Hermosa-Duhat-Balintawak transmission line Due to the turnover of power grid operations, maintenance, expansion, and eminent domain from National Transmission Corporation (TransCo) to NGCP on January 15, 2009, only four lands and structures, and two ROWs for the lattice towers were acquired and designated, and under the original TransCo plan and component of the relocation project that are currently in use (towers 255, 256, 266, and 267 (with the last two are using National Power Corporation (NAPOCOR/NPC)-era and original TransCo designation towers 264 and 265)) as stated on the fieldwork report of Hermosa-Balintawak Transmission Line Relocation as part of their permission granted from NLEX Corporation, and San Simon, Apalit, Calumpit, and Pulilan local government units (LGUs) to run parallel with San Simon-Pulilan section of North Luzon Expressway (NLEX). As a result, NGCP continued the project by acquiring and designating lands and 3 ROWs for the 58 steel poles (poles 228–254, 257–265, 268–289, with some of them are NAPOCOR/NPC-era poles or secondhand where they should be supposedly be retired and not used within the project under its original TransCo plan), under NGCP's revised plan and component of the project, and on locations and alignment or route different from the original TransCo plan of the relocation project from November 2009 until the completion of the relocated line segment in September 2011 when the reference numbers and Danger with ownership information signs were placed on the structures, after the transmission project was delayed many times due to the repair of damaged facilities on Bicol Region resulting from 2006 typhoons, the turnover from TransCo to NGCP in January 2009, and typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng which flooded the Apalit, Calumpit and Pulilan rice paddies, and Candaba Swamp on where the right-of-way (ROW) of a viaduct section of the relocation project passes through, still with the permission from NLEX Corporation and the said LGUs to continue the project.
In July 2010, NGCP constructed 3 new and higher steel poles (381–383) due to the construction of Plaridel Bypass Road.