The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) will be revising the rules that will set reliability indices for power plant operations, primarily their permissible allowance on planned and forced outages.
According to ERC Chairperson Monalisa C. Dimalanta, the existing reliability index is “very restrictive;” hence, the Commission will be modifying it to be more aligned with the protocols of power plant operations being enforced in other energy markets.
She indicated that the ERC may need to work with foreign experts in reviewing the prevailing rules; and the outcome of that process will be the basis of the rules revision that will eventually be presented to relevant stakeholders.
At this stage, the ERC chief conveyed that the Philippine Independent Power Producers Association Inc. (PIPPA) has filed a petition “to amend the indices that caps the number of allowable outages.”
Under the reliability index implemented since 2020, for power facilities equipped with pulverized coal technology, their allowable ‘unavailability’ or outages shall be equivalent to 44.7 days – comprising of 27.9 days of planned outages and 16.8 days of forced or unplanned outages; while for coal plants running on circulating fluidized bed (CFB) technology, allowable outages shall be for aggregate 32.3 days with 15.4 days of planned outages and 16.9 days of unplanned outages.
Combined cycle plants, on the other, are permitted for total outages of 20.2 days with 12.5 days for planned outages and 7.7 days for forced outages; gas turbine plants to have total outages of 29.2 days (6.5 days of planned and 22.7 days of unplanned outages); while diesel shall be allowed unavailability of 19.0 days (5.0 days of planned and 14 days of forced outages).
For geothermal facilities, they are allowed to have total outages of 19.7 days (6 days of planned and 13.7 days of unplanned outages); and hydropower facilities could be out from the system for 29.9 days (23.1 days of planned and 6.8 days of unplanned outages).
Further, oil-fired generating facilities are given a total of 58.6 days of outages with 30.8 days of planned shutdown and 27.8 days of unscheduled outages; while biomass are allowed aggregate outages of 39.7 days with 32.7 days of planned shutdowns and 7.0 days of forced outages.
At the time, the ERC justified that the modified benchmarks on allowable outages on power plants are in keeping with the industry’s goal to ensure that the generating facilities would strive for more efficient and reliable operations, so the consumers could be spared from unwanted brownouts especially during the peak demand months of summer.
The stricter operational parameters for power plants, the ERC emphasized, “will not only ensure reliable supply but will also stabilize the price of electricity due to less or non-exposure to the volatile prices in the spot market.”
The ERC specified that the rules apply to generation companies with conventional and non-variable renewable energy (VRE) generating plants that are connected to the grid; and these shall include embedded generating plants with an aggregate capacity of 5.0 megawatts and above.