The Philippine Independent Power Producers Association (PIPPA) has asked the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to amend rules on power plant outages.
In a petition to the regulatory body, the group wants the rules to be adjusted to cater to specific inherent characteristics of power plant technologies, among other considerations.
PIPPA asked the ERC to re-evaluate its existing interim outage rules, saying they “should only be recommendatory in nature and allow all planned outages.”
PIPPA also argued in its petition outages due to major maintenance and overhauls should not be counted against the prescribed outage allowance, while the prescribed unplanned outage allowance must be amended to reflect accurate data and be renamed to forced outage.
Under current ERC interim rules, pulverized coal plants are allowed for a combined forced and unforced unavailable days of 44.7; circulating fluidized bed (CFB) coal, 32.3 days; combined cycle gas plants, 20.2 days; gas turbine, 29.2 days; diesel, 19 days; geothermal.
19.7 days; hydro, 29.9 days; oil-fired thermal, 58.6 days; and biomass plants, 39.7 days.
However, PIPPA’s proposal to the ERC is to make changes only for forced outages or maintenance outages to 95.9 days for pulverized coal, 61.5 days for CFB coal, 47.93 days for natural gas, 72.6 days for diesel, 138.8 days for geothermal, 29.3 days for hydroelectric power plants and 33.1 days for pump hydro projects.
PIPPA also said parties found to be non-compliant on outage rules should be given a “reasonable time” to comply with the joint requirement of compliance and explanation, while variable renewable energy sources such as run-of-river plants must be entirely excluded from outage rules.
PIPPA also wants to suspend the implementation of the interim outage rule until the resolution of its petition for amendments or at the very least, until the end of the year.
The group also asked the ERC to rescind any penalty imposed for violation of the interim rules until the regulatory body decides on the petition for amendments. – Jed Macapagal
