ADB ready to extend $1 B to boost Phl power network

Multilateral lender Asian Development Bank (ADB) is looking to extend up to $1 billion in financing to fortify and modernize the Philippines' electrical superhighway, according to an official.

- BRIX LELIS

"We are looking at strengthening your national grid," ADB senior director for energy Priyantha Wijayatunga said in a chance interview yesterday on the sidelines of the 2025 Asia Clean Energy Summit here.

"There is a request to ADB to support, and we (still) have to work it out because it's not the government's grid at the moment," he said.

A privately owned corporation, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines holds a 25-year concession contract and a 50-year franchise to operate the country's power transmission network.

According to the ADB official, the loan, which could total “up to about a billion dollars,” is designed to help the Philippines accommodate the projected influx of offshore wind capacity.