DOE to issue policy on power reserves

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Energy (DOE) is set to issue  a policy that will put more certainty on securing power reserves to avoid power shortage during tight supply.

DOE assistant secretary Redentor Delola said Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi had signed the policy on ancillary services (AS).

Contracted by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), AS is necessary to support the transmission of capacity and energy from resources to loads while maintaining reliable operation of the transmission system in accordance with good utility practice and the grid code.

Under the policy, the DOE has set contracting caps for the reserves.

“We fixed the definition, the megawatt capacity per type of reserve, and how many percent of that should be firm contracts of NGCP. In the draft, we set 50 percent of each reserve requirement should be with firm contract,” Delola  said.

Currently, there is no requirement for firm contracts for AS.

“At the moment, there are a lot of non-firm contracts. So when you need it, because it’s non-firm, they can say that they don’t have enough capacity for AS,” Delola said.

As has three different layers to support the transmission of capacity and energy from resources to loads while maintaining reliable operation of the transmission system in accordance with good utility practice and the grid code.

 NGCP said the regulating reserve, which is the capacity allocated to cover inter and intra-hour variations in demand is equivalent to four percent of the demand in a specific hour.

It also maintains contingency reserve, which refers to the capacity allocated to cover the loss or failure of a generating unit or a transmission line in order to maintain balance between generation and load.

However, some of these reserves are also sourced from the same generating capacities supplying to the power grid.

Cusi earlier said the AS should be like a spare tire of a vehicle, which should always be available in times of trouble.

Meanwhile, the AS policy will also launch the reserves market.

“This means, we will put in the requirements for the reserves market to go live,” Delola said.

The new policy will also establish a technical working group (TWG) co-chaired by the DOE and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

Delola said the TWG would  conduct reviews on the AS requirements.