National Grid Corporation of the Philippines reiterated Tuesday it strictly followed market rules during the shutdown of the Malampaya natural gas field last year.
National Grid reacted to reports that the company’s alleged inability to dispatch the Malaya plant during the Malampaya shutdown could have cushioned price hikes in the electricity market during peak hours.
The Malaya diesel-fired power plant is managed by Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp., pending its privatization.
National Grid, which acts as the system operator of the power grid, said it dispatched only those generating plants included in the real-time dispatch schedule provided by the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market.
The WESM is the country’s trading floor of electricity and is being operated by Philippine Electricity Market Corp.
National Grid said the RTD schedule of the WESM did not include the Malaya thermal power plant during the maintenance shutdown of the Malampaya gas facility from Nov. 11 to Dec. 10, 2013.
“Records show that supply during that period, as provided by WESM, was enough and that there was no system condition (like voltage problem) that would trigger the call for must-run units,” it said.
Must-run units are generating plants identified by the system operator to be on-line on a particular trading interval to address system security and regulatory and commercial operation requirements during local emergencies and calamities.
National Grid said designating a generating unit as an MRU meant the power plant would be put online to ensure enough supply capacity given the Malampaya situation to meet the power demands of Luzon.
“In this case given the market conditions, Malaya thermal power plant, with a design capacity of 650 MW, was neither included in the RTD nor assigned as an MRU,” it said.
“NGCP maintains that it followed existing rules and procedures to the letter, and in preparation for the Malampaya shutdown, mapped out a contingency plan considering scenarios with and without Malaya,” it said.
National Grid said even during the Malampaya shutdown, there was enough supply available in the Luzon grid. Alena Mae S. Flores source
No comments:
Post a Comment