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ThursdaY, November

NGCP tells NGCP...

.CoNaNoBDFRoMAI ''

lawmakers: Gat(halian said recently that he was

informed b]/ the National Transmission Cori
(Tran(0) 0fthe possibilitythat the power grid

Check out iould be shut off remotely by the Chinese

oovernhent.
' (hina (5G(()
Th, strt. Grid (orp. of
our facility has a 40-pel(ent stake in NG(P' whi(h
t00k 0veI the management and 0perati0n
still
ofthe power grid since 2009 Transco
BY LENTE LECTURA owns the ass€ts.
9 @Ilectura But Almeda played down the
possibility

of a remote shutdown bY Chinese

l-ft O fu rther allaY fears of Darties. 'There is nothing t0 be alarmed
I Chinas interference in the ;bout the stake b)/ the SGCC in NGCP as
I lhilippir," power grid, the its investment is limlted 0nly t0 being a
National Crid CorP. of the PhiliP- tethnical adviser,' he said.
pines (NGCP) on WednesdaY in- NGCP. he n0ted. is 60-pe rcent (0ntrolled
vitedlawmakers to inspect thegrid by tilipino tompanies: Monte 0ro Grid
operator's facilitY. Resources(orp. and ftlaca High PoweI
torp'
NGCP President and Chief Ex- with 30-per(entshares each As su(h, 5GCC

ecutive Officer AnthonY L Alm- hasonlythree nominees$,hositas membels

eda suggested a visit by legislators ofthe NG(P B0ard ofDire(t0rs Iepresenting
and an independent PartY to Per- the (0mpany and ploportionate t0 its
sonally see how the Power grid is caoitalshares
managed and oPerated. "5G(( serves 0nly asthe tech nica I advisel
"We are happy to welcome our 0fthe (ons0ttium, butthe management and
senators andcongressmen, as well the (onttol of NG(P, including its Systems
as an independent third PartY to 0pelati0n, are extlusively exertised by
visit our facilities in order to dis-
-
Filioinos," Almeda Pointed out'
pel any security concerns that had 'He
added that the supervisory €0ntr0l
been raised these past few daYs," and data acquisition (s(ada),the system
that
Almeda said. controlsthe qrid, is operated 0nly by a uth0rized
A few lawmakers had visited tili0in0 te(hniGlexperts of NGCP'
the site a few years back. These "By default, Stada is dis(0nne(ted from
include Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian the Virtual Private Network; thus, remote
in August 2016, and RePs. BabY users (ann0t c0nned t0 Scadai'Almeda
said,
Arenas and Danilo Suarez in pointinq out that "VPN atcess may only be
March 2017. Sometime inAugust qranted t0 the Filipino CEo khief opetating
2077, Er.ergy SecretarY Alfonso officerlin an emergenty situation and 0nly
Cusi also inspected the NGCP after undetgoing a seture and confidential
facilities. afprovalProtess.'
SEE "NCCP," A2 sin(e NG(P commen(ed its opelatlons ln
pproval process for the VPN access
t flnlr pAq6t'
2009, the a

hasnotbeeninvoked and n0 remoteac(esshas

been oranted.
nlmeda noted that its Systems 0pera-
ti0n (50) Data(entel is equipped with
bi0metri( access (ontr0ls whi(h allow only
auth0lized NGCP pe60nnelt0 enter, apart
from the 5(ada workstations and servers
thar have been se(ured by firewallg and
layers 0f authenti(ati0n systems t0 blo(k
unauthorized a(cess
Almeda also said that NGCP has not
entered into other businesses, other than
th0se permitted under the C0ncession
Agreement.