GBP units ink ancillary services deal with NGCP

Global Business Power Corp. yesterday said it had engaged with National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to support the reliability and security of the country’s power grid.

“Our subsidiaries Cebu Energy Development Corp. and Panay Energy Development Corp. have entered into an ASPA (ancillary services procurement agreement) with NGCP in April of this year,” Philip Dasalla, GBP’s head for commercial and strategy, said in a statement.

Ancillary services refer to the generating capacity readily available for dispatch in order to meet contingency reserve requirements when a power plant trips or a transmission interconnection problem occurs.

Such services can also be used for black start, which happens when one power generator is used to restart another power plant that has tripped.

GBP operates 11 power generation facilities in Cebu, Iloilo, Aklan and Mindoro. It also has a 50-percent stake in Mindanao-based Alsons Thermal Energy Corp., which was acquired in 2017.

As an independent power producer, GBP is answering NGCP’s call for electricity generators to offer their available capacity as ancillary services through ASPAs.

All such offers for ancillary services are subject to the approval of the Energy Regulatory Commission.

GBP president Jaime Azurin said this move was in line with the company’s new thrust to become “a total sustainable energy solutions provider.”

“When we think about sustainability, we just don’t think about power source, we think of the overall energy ecosystem—including the reliability of our transmission system,” Azurin said.