NGCP authorized as metering service provider

MANILA, Philippines -  The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), the operator of the country’s power transmission highway, has been authorized to become a wholesale electricity spot market metering services provider (WMSP).

Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) chairperson Zenaida G. Cruz-Ducut said the certificate of authority awarded to NGCP finalizes the provisional authority previously granted to the company as a metering services provider.

Provision, operation and maintenance of revenue metering facilities are utility functions the National Transmission Corp. (TransCo) assumed from the National Power Corp. (Napocor) as mandated by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA).

NGCP, the private concessionaire of the transmission network since 2009, then became the de facto metering service provider of Napocor and other energy suppliers for the purpose of billing their energy sales to their customers.

With the operation of the WESM, NGCP has rehabilitated and upgraded the metering points from the Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao grids to distribution utilities and other load customers to make these metering facilities “WESM_ready”.

Meter boxes, back-up meters, and revenue meters for substations are some of the metering structures that have already been replaced and enhanced.

The automated meter data retrieval (AMR) system is also in place to satisfy the requirement of the WESM for the daily delivery of load profile-type of meter data from all metering facilities.

NGCP is now headed by Henry T. Sy Jr. as president and chief executive officer. Sy, the son and namesake of mall, retail, real estate, and banking magnate Henry Sy Sr., also heads several corporations under the Sy Group of Companies, including SM Development Corp. which was recognized by the Asian Wall Street Journal as the ninth most admired corporation in the Philippines for 2010.