NGCP says fewer tripping of power lines this year

Posted on September 23, 2016
http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Economy&title=ngcp-says-fewer-tripping-of-power-lines-this-year&id=133869

PRIVATELY RUN National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said it has exceeded the performance targets set by the Energy Regulatory Commission for a seventh straight year, judging by the way it cut the number of times its power lines tripped, among others.
“This is a tangible result of the continuous upgrade, expansion, and reinforcement of our facilities,” the NGCP said in a statement on Thursday.

The grid operator said the statistics on frequency of tripping is a key performance indicator that measures the times the high-voltage transmission lines tripped or went into forced outages for every 100-circuit kilometers.

In Luzon grid, the frequency of tripping dropped by 73% to 1.1380 this year from 4.265 in 2009, the year transmission functions were turned over to privately owned NGCP from state-owned National Transmission Corp.

In the Visayas, the tripping frequency also declined by 86% to 0.5168 from 3.6260, and in Mindanao by 67% to 0.8600 from 2.6200.

“Many technical changes have been implemented to systematically improve operations to build a stronger power grid. Improvements on corporate governance also resulted in more efficient and streamlined operational practices,” the grid operator said.

The NGCP said system upgrades and facility expansions took place to improve system availability ratings, recorded at 99.5702% for the Luzon grid, 99.8013% for the Visayas grid, and 99.7320% for the Mindanao grid. The ratings, as a performance indicator, measure the percentage of the entire transmission system that is available or normally operating normally in a given period.

“Luzon grid’s rating this year is higher compared to the 2015 figure of 99.4125%. The other grids maintained the same ratings posted last year,” it said.

The company also said the congestion availability indicator hit a positive rating of 99.7209% this year from 99.5830% in 2015. The indicator measures the congestion experienced by critical lines whose loss would severely impact the operations of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market.

NGCP said the three grids registered close to full compliance with voltage and frequency limits, which are measured by the percentage of time during a given period that the system frequency or voltage is within the allowable limits.

It said Luzon grid posted a 100% frequency limit compliance, or no frequency violations for the 2015 and 2016 evaluation years. The figure for the Visayas grid was 99.8603% in 2015 and 99.8869% in 2016. In Mindanao, the corresponding numbers are 99.9934% and 99.9739%.

The company said the voltage limit compliance of all three grid remained at 99% in 2015, with the Luzon grid at 99.94%, the Visayas grid at 99.96% and the Mindanao grid at 99.99% for 2016. -- V.V. Saulon