DOE formulates dispatch system for backup power

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a circular promulgating the central scheduling and dispatch of energy and contracted reserves or back up power for the country’s trading floor of electricity.

In a statement, Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said the DOE has approved and adopted the “protocol for the central scheduling and dispatch of energy and contracted reserves.”

The central scheduling intends to reflect the entire capacities in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), the electricity trading floor, including the reserve capacities contracted by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), so that these can be centrally scheduled for either energy or reserve.

PEMC, as the market operator, will be responsible for determining the energy and reserve schedules of all facilities in the WESM, according to the circular.

Under the protocol, all trading participants shall submit their generation and reserve offers consistent with the WESM timetable for the week-ahead and day-ahead market projections to provide a more accurate determination of reserve requirements. 

This central schedule would provide the DOE better monitoring of all generation capacity in both energy and reserve and provide more preparations to the participants for the eventual operation of the WESM reserve market, the DOE said.

“PEMC (Philippine Electricity Market Corp.), as the market operator, NGCP (National Grid Corp. of the Philippines) as the system operator and all affected trading participants shall ensure compliance with this circular and the said protocol for the better achievement of this policy. PEMC shall continuously submit an assessment report to the DOE on its implementation of this protocol and the development of the WESM reserve market,” Petilla said.

The DOE said the central scheduling of energy and contracted reserves — which will provide a view of all generation capacity of the grid — will further prepare power players for full commercial operations of the reserve market.

At present, reserve capacities are managed by the NGCP for the secure and reliable operation of the grid.

These capacities used for the reserves of NGCP are netted out of the generation offers submitted to the WESM.

The proposed reserve market, which is in progress, will be integrated to the WESM to make the costs of electricity more competitive, and provide reliable pricing incentives for prospective providers of both energy and reserve.