RE Installations Anchored On Reserve

Manila Bulletin
By MYRNA M. VELASCO
April 18, 2012, 4:55pm


MANILA, Philippines — System operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) set on record that its recommended installation targets for renewable energy (RE) are not yet final, because these will ultimately be anchored on the level of regulating reserve that will be made available in the system.


“The study’s technical consideration included the electric power system stability and actual available ancillary service under present regulation. The final maximum integration capacity will still depend on the actual available ancillary service,” the company has noted in a statement.


NGCP made particular reference to regulating reserve or the capacity that could automatically cover and exclusively allocated to immediately plug variations in demand based on generation schedules and hourly forecasts.


The solar and wind developers primarily raised a different opinion with that of NGCP as to what would be the level of reserve necessary to cover the intermittency of their proposed technologies.


The grid operator nevertheless emphasized that the current level of penetration targets it recommended had been based on the technical analysis it has undertaken, with the help of its partners from the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) and China Electric Power Research Institute.


It added that the outcome of the study was heavily anchored on guarding the grid “against the effects of the unpredictable nature of intermittent RE.”


The company thus dismissed allegations that it has been “arbitrarily limiting the installation targets” that shall be integrated into the grid.


NGCP spokesperson Cynthia Alabanza noted that the report presented to the Department of Energy (DOE) last year “was not a final recommendation on the installation targets.” It can be culled that the initial installation targets approved by the department were just at 760 megawatts, way below the recommended scale by the RE developers. The company has stressed that other considerations have also been inputted by government into the equation, such as the financial and rate impacts which are already beyond its sphere of influence.