On February 12, Gloria M. Arroyo, President of the Philippines, met with Liu Zhenya, President of the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), at her office. She highly praised SGCC's investment in and management of the power grid in the Philippines, and expressed her congratulations to the consortium composed of SGCC and local partners for winning the franchise of the Philippine national power transmission network.

She hoped that Chinese companies would expand investment in the Philippines and cooperate in more extensive fields.

The National Transmission Corporation of the Philippines, with SGCC as its largest shareholder, has started its operation of the national power transmission network in the Philippines.

This is so far China's largest investment project in the Philippines, and the first time that a grid company from China has won a franchise for operating a national power grid in a foreign country.

The National Transmission Corporation of the Philippines is a joint venture between SGCC, Monte Oro Grid Resources and the Calaca High Power Corporation, with SGCC as its largest shareholder, owning 40 percent of the shares.

In December 2007, the three companies from China and the Philippines formed a consortium and won the bid for the 25-year franchise of the Philippine national power transmission network at a price of 3.95 billion USD, which was later examined and approved by the Philippine Congress and President.

By 2008, the electric transmission network had 20,246 kilometers of electric lines between 69-500 kilovolts, with a power transformation capacity of 25.032 million kilovolt-amperes, connected by 131 transformer substations.

By People's Daily Online