By Alena Mae S. Flores
The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines said Wednesday the power grid’s performance continues to improve since it took over as the country’s transmission service provider in 2009.
In a statement, NGCP said its overall performance in operating the grid from 2009 to 2022 was significantly better, as indicated by improved performance indicators compared to when the grid was run by the government from 2000 to 2008.
It said NGCP’s performance showed a significant decrease in tripping incidents across all three major island grids.
Frequency of tripping (FOT) measures the number of times high-voltage transmission lines tripped or experienced forced outages for every 100 circuit kilometers.
NGCP’s average FOT for Luzon has gone down from 6.4732 in 2000-2008 to 1.3386 in 2009-2022 .
It went down from 6.6530 to 0.9508 in Visayas, and from 8.0788 to 1.3285 for Mindanao.
NGCP also improved the capability of the grid to mitigate the impact of power interruptions on overall grid operations, which are measured by the system availability indicator and system interruption severity index (SISI).
Under NGCP, system availability for Luzon is at 99.3160 percent, Visayas at 99.6538 percent, and Mindanao at 99.7206 percent.
For the SISI, Luzon only averaged 10.7236 system minutes of interruptions in 2009-2022 compared to 13.8978 from 2000-2008.
Meanwhile, Visayas was at 47.3318 SISI during NGCP time, from an average of 176.3350 system minutes pre-privatization; and 9.124 system minutes from 10.434 in Mindanao.
“These indicators are the most tangible proof of our performance felt by end-users. Our improved numbers are attributed to the continuous upgrading and expansion projects such as wood pole replacement, substation additions, capacitor bank projects, and new transmission lines, effectively reinforcing the stability and reliability of the grid,” NGCP said.
All three grids have significantly reduced, if not completely eliminated, violations of frequency and voltage limits.
NGCP said the average voltage limit compliance improved across all three grids, while frequency limit compliance improved in both Luzon and Visayas, generally ensuring the stability of the transmission grid.
“Since NGCP took over transmission operations in 2009, we performed over and above our targets year-on-year. This is a result of the
company’s commitment to deliver on our mandate to provide quality transmission services. We assure our stakeholders that NGCP’s ongoing projects and programs seek only to further improve our services,” the company said.
The performance indicator ratings are the basis of its incentives given to NGCP, as indicated in the performance incentive scheme, which is reviewed and approved every regulatory period by the Energy Regulatory Commission.
