THE Department of Energy (DOE) assured that a reserve market with a full commercial operation could help in ensuring system stability.

According to reports, the DOE said that the power generation companies will be selling ancillary services to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), the country's system operator and sole buyer of reserves, even without ancillary service procurement agreement.

"This will bring efficient dispatch of all available capacities by co-optimizing the capacity and price offers of energy and reserve to ensure that the required levels for both services are always met," DOE Secretary Raphael Lotilla said.

Ancillary services always serve as power reserves, to which when power plants go on outages to prevent brownouts.

The NGCP said that before the full commercial operation of the reserve market, there is a need to secure ancillary service contracts in preparation for the dry months when power demand is higher.

With the ancillary services that needed to be secured are the regulating reserve, which is equal to 4 percent of the peak demand; a contingency reserve, which is equal to 4 percent of the peak demand plus the capacity of the biggest power plant in the system; and a dispatchable reserve requirement, which is equal to 4 percent of the peak demand plus the capacity of the second largest plant in the system.

"With today's commercial operation of the reserve market, the available reserves are sufficient to ensure the system stability of the grid," Lotilla said.