ERC to prioritize approval of NGCP contracts

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) will be prioritizing the approval of contracts on the ancillary services (AS) procurements of system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to help address the imbalances and technical stresses being experienced in the country’s power system which in turn triggered rotational blackouts in Luzon and Visayas grids recently.

According to ERC Chairperson Monalisa C. Dimalanta, “we have a dedicated team to fast-track the process…we are prioritizing this. The pre-filing review is ongoing.”

The regulatory body also stated that it will come up with a timeline on when the ASPA approvals will be issued, that way, the warranted reserve requirements in the power system can already be made available to the grid operator.

The directive on expediting the award of the AS contracts directly came from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., as relayed to the media by the Department of Energy.

“Even the President has already ordered NGCP to fast track the awarding of the ancillary services from the CSP (competitive selection process),” Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevarra said.

CSP refers to the bidding process carried out by NGCP to select the appropriate suppliers of its ancillary services requirements – based on prescribed technical specifications and on a ‘least cost’ basis.

The companies which won the contracts for the various AS needs of NGCP confirmed that the signing of ancillary services procurement agreements (ASPAs) had already been concluded; and filing for regulatory approvals are currently being worked on.

As conveyed by ACEN Corporation President and CEO Eric T. Francia, the ASPAs were already signed for the supply of AS won by their subsidiary-companies.

Aboitiz Power Corporation President Emmanuel V. Rubio similarly affirmed that the AS contracts cornered by their various corporate-subsidiaries have already been “signed and notarized,” and there was already a pre-filing meeting with the ERC; while the formal submission of ASPA applications for regulatory evaluation and approval will be on Friday (May 12).

It was also divulged by First Gen Senior Vice President Victor Emmanuel B. Santos Jr.. that the ASPA for the sourcing of AS supply from their Pantabangan-Masiway hydro plant has already been signed.

In addition, Ellen D. Go, general manager of SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. of the San Miguel group, indicated that the AS contracts for their winning battery energy storage systems (BESS) were already signed and correspondingly filed with the ERC.

NGCP had recently issued the notice of award for the 38 AS contracts it had underwritten for the procurement of the array of ancillary services it will be needing for the reliable operations of the country’s power system – and these include regulating reserve, contingency reserve, dispatchable reserve, reactive power support and blackstart service.

As emphasized, once the AS-procured supply would start supporting the operations of the transmission system, the grid imbalances as well as the lack of reserves perceived to be causing the rotational brownouts could already be eased.