Technical audit on NGCP pushed

Manila Bulletin 
By Myrna M. Velasco 
Published: July 4, 2013 
Given the recurring brownouts triggered by transmission line trippings, Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla is seriously weighing proposals for the government to undertake technical audit on the country’s power grid which shall center on the protection system being installed by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) as well as on its ancillary services procurement.
Petilla told media that “they will look into these concerns”, as these are already being raised repeatedly to government by various stakeholders.
He added that the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has also been looking into reports of probable ancillary services contracting breach by the transmission concessionaire, primarily on contingency reserve or what is also being referred to as “replacement reserve.”
The proposal will be for the system operator to contract for a contingency reserve that will be equal to the largest unit on-line, which in the case of the Philippines is 600 megawatts, but this is being contested by NGCP.
Luzon grid plunged into “darkness” again on Tuesday (July 2), following a tripping of NGCP’s 230-kilovolt Pagbilao-Tayabas lines 1 and 2 that subsequently triggered forced shutdowns of the Pagbilao, Quezon Power and Sta. Rita plants. 
The grid suffered 1,000 megawatts of capacity loss, hence, resulting in more than 30 minutes of brownouts in various areas including Metro Manila.
The last massive brownouts which pestered Luzon grid was May 8 this year, with a power supply loss of 3,700 megawatts because of the Biñan-Calaca line tripping of NGCP.
This early, government is cautioning NGCP that any failure on its part to sustain power reliability and quality in the country’s transmission system is a ground for termination of the 25-concession agreement.
Reports from technical people on the ground indicated that “the grid load is often subject to frequency imbalance” and such often triggers transmission line trippings leading to brownouts. Since May 8, it was tipped off that five incidents of trippings already happened, with the two being the severe cases.
Energy officials similarly noted that “aside from probing the cause of the line trippings, reports of inadequate and inefficient substation protection equipment installed by NGCP are also being scrutinized.”
The other area wherein regulatory probe has been centering on is on reports that NGCP has not been buying the required level of contingency reserve as prescribed under the Grid Code.   source