ERC Releases the Rules and Procedures for Monitoring of Reliability Performance of Small Grid Generating Units

On 30 August 2022, the Energy Regulatory Commission (“ERC”) issued ERC Resolution No. 7, series of 2022 which contained the Rules and Procedures to Govern the Monitoring of Reliability Performance of Small Grid Generating Units (the “Rules”). The ERC promulgated these rules to: (i) classify Unit States, which is a particular condition that is important for purposes of collecting data on performance, (ii) provide a uniform technical code for Unit States, and (iii) to monitor the reliability performance of all Small Grid Generating Units/Plants, among others.

The Rules shall apply to all Generation Companies with conventional and non-variable renewable energy generating plants units connected to the Small Grid or Microgrid System not connected to the National Grid in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, except for Self-Generation Facilities.

The Unit States are initially classified into Active and Inactive, with further classifications depending on the state of the Unit, which include Available or Unavailable, Inactive Reserve, Mothballed, and Retired, among others. A Unit is Active if it generally enters the active state on its service date. Meanwhile, Inactive is the state in which a generating unit is unavailable for service for an extended period of time for reasons not related to the equipment. Aside from classifying Unit States, the Rules also provided for information regarding time designations and formulas for computation of reliability performance indices.

Under the Rules, Generation Companies must, in the event that a generating unit is in the unavailable and/or derating state, submit an event report within 48 hours from the occurrence of the event to the System Operator, Department of Energy, and the ERC. A Unit is in the unavailable state when it is not capable of operation because of operational or equipment failures, external restrictions, testing, work being performed, or some adverse condition. Meanwhile, a Unit is in a derating state when it is operating at less than its net maximum capacity. Generation Companies must also submit event reports for planned and unplanned outages. Aside from the event reports, a Generation Company shall also submit a Monthly Summary Report every 15^th day of the month following the month in review.

Finally, System Operators are required to submit to the ERC, Weekly Small Grid Operations Report, which shall cover Sunday to Monday, every Tuesday following the week in review. They shall also submit the Annual Small Grid Operating Program covering the following year, on the 15^th day of September of each year.

For more information, the full copy of the resolution may be accessed here.