Transmission firm National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) is enforcing tighter cybersecurity measures to protect the country’s power transmission system from hacking or other factors that could compromise the integrity of its operations.

“We have implemented various measures to ensure the security and protection of our system from unauthorized remote access,” the company noted in a statement.

The company sets out that declaration on account of never-ending allegations relating to the “vulnerability of the grid as a result of foreign participation in NGCP.”

The foreign technical partner in NGCP is State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) which has a 40-percent stake in the transmission firm. Suspicions have been raised that "controls" on the operation of the transmission system may have direct link with the Chinese firm-partner’s operations at its headquarters in China.

But that was strongly denied by the company, asserting that “there is simply no truth to this accusation. All control centers, substations, and command centers are operated by Filipinos.”

NGCP explained that in the chain of its operations, “there is a corporate network that is completely separate from the SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system.”

SCADA refers to a system of various hardware and software elements that supports the supervision and control processes of the network of the country’s transmission assets.

The company emphasized “the corporate network is connected to the internet but is protected by NGCP’s cybersecurity systems,” adding that “firewalls, advanced threat detection and analytics, and cybersecurity tools are on every device issued by NGCP to its personnel.”

It stressed “these tools ensure that cybersecurity threats are detected and addressed or blocked,” and that “the security of the grid is, and will always be, of paramount importance to us.”

The transmission firm indicated one concrete measure the company had taken on that was the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the NICA (National Intelligence Coordinating Agency) which intends “to protect the transmission system from all threats.”

During a Senate Committee on Energy hearing on Wednesday, July 12, NGCP’s Head of Corporate Communications Cynthia Alabanza similarly apprised the legislative body that “only four of (the) corporation’s 10-person board are Chinese and cannot strong-arm any decisions.”

When quizzed on a certain provision of NGCP’s bylaws, which disallows the board to convene without the presence of any of the Chinese stakeholders, she stated that “the provision is a simple courtesy to the partners that can only be invoked twice…the rest of the Filipino board still has more control.”

She expounded “as regards the concerns raised by Senators (Sherwin) Gatchalian and (Raffy) Tulfo on the ability of the Chinese shareholders to defeat the will of the Filipino board, this fear is not only speculative, it is without basis.” Tulfo is the chairman while Gatchalian sits as the vice chairman of the energy committee in the upper chamber.

Alabanza pointed out that “at best, the minority shareholders can delay convening the board, but the board cannot be held hostage indefinitely. Any urgent matter that needs immediate attention can be decided on by the President and CEO, a Filipino. If needed, this may later be ratified by the board."

The company also argued “the 40-percent stake of SGCC is constitutionally allowed and necessary because the Philippines did not have any local bidders that are capable of meeting the technical requirements for what the NGCP needs to achieve.”

NGCP was declared the winning bidder when the transmission assets of the country was privatized by the government and the operations and management of the power transmission system was turned over to it in January 2009.