ERC defers decision on ancillary services contracts of NGCP to March
MANILA, Philippines — The Energy Regulatory Commission’s (ERC) decisions on several ancillary services procurement agreements (ASPA) have been pushed back to March amid “pending issues,” but the agency assures the delay will not impact power reliability.
Based on a recent document posted on its website, the regulator said it decided to defer the decisions on 19 ASPA applications of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP). The ERC chief said they still needed “some data from our technical team to conclude the deliberations.”
“We do not see the deferral affecting power reliability since we have a good level of reserves also available in the Reserve Market at this time,” ERC chair and chief executive officer Monalisa Dimalanta said in a message to reporters.
“We will finalize this early March,” she added.
READ: NGCP: Transmission costs up in February
According to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, ancillary services are functions “necessary to support the transmission of capacity and energy from resources to loads while maintaining reliable operation of the transmission system.”
Tapping ancillary services is necessary to ensure continuous delivery of power, subsequently avoiding outages.
Some of NGCP’s notable applications with providers involve the units of San Miguel Corp. (SMC), ACEN, and Aboitiz Power. These are Masinloc Power Partners and Universal Power Solutions of SMC; Subic Power Generation, Ingrid Power Holdings, and Bulacan Power Generation of ACEN; and Therma Luzon Inc. of Aboitiz Power.
In December last year, the ERC set a ceiling price of P25 per kilowatt hour for reserve trading in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), an avenue for producers and distributors to trade power and get a supply boost, especially during hotter months when electricity usage surges.
The reserve market plays a critical role in the energy sector as it helps ensure supply availability amid power outages. All power generation companies are allowed to sell their reserves on the platform.
Meanwhile, in the same document, the ERC bared that it approved four projects of the NGCP with costs estimated at P5 billion.
