NGCP proposes Grid Code amendments

System operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) is proposing amendments to the Grid Code to ensure the country’s power system can efficiently absorb gigawatt-scale but variable renewable energy (RE) capacities.

In a presentation to the media, NGCP Vice President and Head of System Operations Reynaldo B. Abadilla indicated that there is an immediate need toamend the Grid Code requirements to cater to renewable energy influx. “We all know that these are variable in nature, but there are solutions as well that go hand in hand in order for us to sustain the requirement for a reliable network,” said Abadilla.

He stated that the massive RE investment game plan being advanced by the country “will be costly,” primarily in terms of added investments to upgrade as well as expand the grids’ loading capacities to ensure reliable operation of the transmission network corresponding to the on-and-off nature of generation of variable REs, primarily wind and solar farm installations.

Abadilla emphasized that the mammoth capital spending and infrastructure buildup “are needed because the network of Visayas and even Luzon is not that big to be able to cater to a lot of variable renewables.”

The planning for the grid reinforcement, he specified, will also need to factor in warranted supporting solutions such as batteries or energy storage systems, the static synchronous compensator (statcom) system underpinning, as well as “changing the conventional power plants’ flexibility.”

“These are some of the improvements being done by other jurisdictions so that they can cater to more and more variable RE capacities in their system,” he said.

In particular, the statcom which is classified to be under flexible alternating current (AC) transmission, is a fast-acting device that is capable of providing or absorbing reactive current that could then help in regulating or providing voltage stability in a power grid.

Through the entire chain of the power system, Abadilla stated that improved energy planning to be spearheaded by the Department of Energy (DOE) as well as coordination and technology synchronization among all players in the generation, transmission and distribution sectors shall be strictly enforced – primarily to avoid recurrence of the recent incidents of technical glitches that had not just precipitated tripping of transmission lines, but also forced outages of power plants even if system redundancies ought to be working.

The NGCP executive primarily noted that there must be “improve generation planning towards sufficient and stable generation per island; and to avoid heavy loading of the transmission lines – so it must be planned in such a way that is optimal in terms of distribution of generation.”

He also conveyed that “as a way forward, we need to improve not only the distribution, but also transmission in terms of line clearing so there would be no obstruction on the lines so we would minimize the fault that we experience along transmission lines and sub-transmission lines as well.”

Abadilla further proposed the need for a “review of generator setting;” as non-synchronization of protection setting of the players in the supply chain had been pointed to as the cause of the grid’s failure to effectively isolate areas that could have been affected by service interruptions.

“As we have seen in the April 27 event (in the Visayas grid), had it not been the big unit of PCPC (Palm Concepcion Power Corp) that tripped, the system was still normal because we have previous event related to the tripping of the same feeder and nothing happened,” he narrated.

In addition, he underscored the efficient use of emerging technologies being integrated into the grid, such as the battery energy storage system and other future innovations.

In other energy markets, power generators are fully engaged to be part in sorting out solution to balancing problem being experienced in the grid, because they are treated as relevant part of a system operating process – and the three segments of the industry (generation, transmission and distribution) shall work as one and not independent from each other.

It was pointed out that the unbundling of the three segments of players in the supply chain is just confined to the business aspect, but they shall be taken as a whole and coordinated on the aspect of system operation – that way, the totality of electricity system will function effectively in servicing the needs of consumers.