Philippine Energy Policy Wiki

MOC: Grid Services and Storage

Status
operative
Confidence
high

Operative policy for the physical network and what connects to it, as distinct from the market that trades over it. Authority is EPIRA (Digest: RA 9136 — Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA) ) throughout, joined by the RE Act for the storage incentives and by the EE&C and EVOSS Acts for the smart grid framework. Only one supersession chain runs here — the 2019 storage policy was fully replaced in 2023 — and nothing else on the page has been amended.

Belongs here: a circular about grid infrastructure, its modernization, its maintenance scheduling, or an asset’s connection to and exit from it. The trading rules that run over the network belong in MOC: Market Operations ; pumped storage as an auction category sits in MOC: RE Support Mechanisms .

Energy storage

  • Digest: DC2023-04-0008 (ESS Policy) — Energy Storage System policy. The operative ESS framework across four technologies (battery, compressed air, flywheel, and Pumped-Storage Hydropower (PSH) in GEAP ) and eight permitted purposes, from ancillary services and WESM trading to RE variability management and network upgrade deferment. Defines four configurations — stand-alone, plant-plus-ESS, integrated RE plant and ESS charged only from renewables, and integrated non-RE — and attaches the certificate-of-compliance and WESM registration consequences of each, with registration mandatory at 10 MW in Luzon and 5 MW in Visayas/Mindanao. An integrated RE-plus-ESS plant qualifies for RE Act incentives, with preferential dispatch optional. Start here for how a storage asset is classified, registered, and remunerated (Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and Energy Storage System Policy ). (2023)
    • Lineage: supersedes Digest: DC2019-08-0012 (Original ESS Policy) (2019 — the original ESS framework, same four technologies and the same registration thresholds, but built around VRE intermittency and grid modernization rather than around configurations; it barred a FIT capacity increase for VRE-charged storage).

Grid modernization and operation

  • Digest: DC2010-03-0003 — Directing Adequate and Reliable Electric Power Supply — Directing adequate and reliable power supply. An early operational directive spanning the whole chain — generation, transmission and distribution — on securing supply adequacy and the grid and dispatch access that depends on it, touching NGCP, TransCo, ERC and the market operator. Start here for the pre-modernization statement of supply-reliability obligations. (2010)
  • Digest: DC2013-03-0003 — Inter-Agency Steering Committee for Smart Grid Policy — Inter-Agency Steering Committee for smart grid policy. Creates the committee that produced the smart grid policy work the framework below later formalises: DOE with NPC, TransCo, NEA, NGCP, PEMC, ERC, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department of Science and Technology, and the Institute of Integrated Electrical Engineers. Start here for the institutional origin of Philippine smart grid policy (Smart Grid Policy Framework ). Recovered from the UN ESCAP mirror; the DOE’s own copy was unavailable. (2013)
  • Digest: DC2020-02-0003 — National Smart Grid Policy Framework — National Smart Grid Policy Framework. Sets a 2040 vision of a self-healing grid with full customer choice, integrated storage and distributed resources, virtual power plants, islanding, demand response, and smart homes and cities, on six guiding principles. Its operative instrument is the Smart Distribution Utility Roadmap: a five-level progression (0–4) on two axes, network automation and customer service, with DUs required to file deployment plans and complete each level before advancing. Sets advanced metering infrastructure requirements including consumer data access and privacy. Start here for DU modernization obligations and AMI (Smart Grid Policy Framework ). (2020)
  • Digest: DC2020-02-0004: Guidelines on Planned Outage Schedules and Public Posting of the GOMP — Planned outage schedules and public posting of the GOMP. Requires every generating company to file a three-year planned outage schedule with National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) , which with the market operator builds the optimal combined generation and transmission schedule — permitting only hydroelectric maintenance during the peak quarter — and submits the Grid Operating and Maintenance Program to the DOE by 31 October each year. The first year binds; years two and three are indicative. The approved GOMP and every amendment must be posted publicly. Start here for outage transparency and maintenance scheduling (Grid Operating and Maintenance Program (GOMP) ). (2020)
  • Digest: DC2023-07-0022 — Decommissioning and mothballing of generating plants. Distinguishes permanent retirement at the end of economic life from temporary deactivation with a planned restart, and sets the notice regime for each: a letter of intent 365 days ahead for decommissioning or 180 days for mothballing, with proof of service on the ERC, DENR, BOI, TransCo, DUs, system and market operators, the WESM governance arm, and the off-taker; DOE confirmation within 60 days; and quarterly progress reporting with automatic or partial certificate-of-compliance consequences. Excludes nuclear plants and self-generating facilities. Start here for plant exit, including coal retirement mechanics (Voluntary CFPP Retirement and Repurposing , Decommissioning and Mothballing of Generating Plants ). (2023)

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