Gatchalian believes NGCP won’t raise red, yellow alert due to power reserves

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Sunday said he is confident the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) will not be raising any red or yellow alerts this summer due to the backup power supply the country now has.

Gatchalian, who serves as Senate Committee on Energy vice chair, said that the NGCP has 600 megawatts of ancillary reserve, as mandated by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

“Ang kaibahan ngayon, may reserba na. Merong 600 megawatts na tinatawag nilang ancillary reserve. Basically, may reserba na tayo. Ito 'yung wala nung mga unang panahon,” he said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview.

(The difference now is we already have a power reserve. There are 600 megawatts that they call ancillary reserve. This is what we didn’t have before.)

“Itong last few months, minandato talaga ng DOE at ERC na magkaroon ng reserba ang NGCP kaya mayroon tayong almost 600 megawatts na naka-standby diyan na kung ano man ang mangyari, takbo ang 600 megawatts na ‘yan,” he added.

(These last few months, the DOE and ERC mandated NGCP to have a reserve. That’s why we have almost 600 megawatts on standby so that no matter what happens, we can resort to those 600 megawatts.)

In February, the NGCP said the power supply was seen to be thin during the hot-dry season months due to the expected uptick in demand.

The DOE earlier blamed NGCP for the thin power supply in Luzon as it failed to comply with the required “firm” ancillary service contracts or reserves, which should be 4% of the power demand and could be tapped in case power plants go offline.

The NGCP explained that it fully contracted its ancillary service requirements, though most of these were on a “non-firm” basis, which the DOE characterized as unreliable since the ancillary service provider decides if they will provide reserves. — DVM, GMA Integrated News