ERC Promulgates Stringent Rules on Plant Outages
ERC Promulgates Stringent Rules on Plant Outages
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) recently promulgated the “Rules for the Interim Reliability Performance Indices and Equivalent Outage Days Per Year of Generating Units” which specify the planned and unplanned outage allowances in days per year. The subject Rules aim to ensure reliability, security, and affordability of the supply of electric power while it promotes accountability of the Generation Companies, the System Operator (SO), and the Transmission Network Provider (TNP) for greater economic efficiency.
“
The ERC, as the regulatory body of the electricity sector, needs to ensure that generating plants are well-maintained and perform within the benchmark/standard per technology for all generating units. This will not only ensure reliable supply but will also stabilize the price of electricity due to less or non-exposure to the volatile prices in the spot market,” said ERC Chairperson and CEO Agnes VST Devanadera.
The “
Rules for the Interim Reliability Performance Indices and Equivalent Outage Days Per Year of Generating Units” provide for an interim benchmark which shall apply to Generation Companies with Conventional and Non-Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) Generating Plants that are connected to the Grid, including Embedded Generating Plants with an aggregated capacity of 5 MW and above.
The subject Rules seek to: a) Set a reliability performance benchmark per technology for all generating units to lessen outages and ensure predictable power supply and rate; b) Promote accountability of Generation Companies, the SO, and the TNP to achieve greater operations and economic efficiency; and c) Monitor the actual planned and unplanned outage days of all generating units.
Under the subject Rules, the ERC has determined the benchmark/standard planned and unplanned outages for the different generating plant technologies to be as follows:
Allowable Planned and Unplanned
Outage Days
|
|
Pulverized
Coal
|
Circulating
Fluidized Bed
|
Combined Cycle
|
Gas Turbine
|
Diesel
|
Geo-thermal
|
Hydro-electric
|
Oil-Fired
Thermal
|
Bio-mass
|
|
No. of Days
Unavailable
|
44.7
|
32.3
|
20.2
|
29.2
|
19.0
|
19.7
|
29.9
|
58.6
|
39.7
|
|
§ No.
of Days on Planned Outages
|
27.9
|
15.4
|
12.5
|
6.5
|
5.0
|
6.0
|
23.1
|
30.8
|
32.7
|
|
§ No.
of Days on Unplanned Outages
|
16.8
|
16.9
|
7.7
|
22.7
|
14.0
|
13.7
|
6.8
|
27.8
|
7.0
|
The SO and the TNP shall utilize the allowable planned outage days specified in the subject Rules as guide in preparing the Grid Operating and Maintenance Program (GOMP). In case the SO and the TNP shall utilize planned outages beyond what is allowable in the Rules, the same shall provide a report as to the reason for such deviation which will be incorporated in the Quarterly Submission of the GOMP to the ERC.
On the other hand, the standard unplanned outages for the generating plants shall be strictly observed. Not only shall this ensure that the generating plants will be properly maintained, this will also consequently result to lesser incidents and occurrences of unplanned outages.
“By setting and giving specific parameters on the standard planned and unplanned outages, the generation companies are obligated to ensure that the generating plants are properly maintained and, thus, lessen the unplanned outages. The Rules for the Interim Reliability Performance Indices and Equivalent Outage Days Per Year of Generating Units, specifically the parameters set for the planned outages, will serve as a guide for the implementation of the Grid Maintenance Program, while the parameters for the unplanned outages will serve as the standard for the generating units,” ERC Chair Devanadera added.