By Erick García, former director of Hydrocarbons at Minem
The sector energy It is characterized by its constant technological advancement and updating of international technical standards, which aim to maintain and improve the safety and reliability of the systems in both the hydrocarbon and electricity subsectors.
Regarding hydrocarbons, a good practice that Minem has been carrying out for several years is the updating of standards to maintain and improve the quality and safety of the different activities of the subsector for the benefit of the population. These improvements have been implemented by operators with adaptation plans.
In the electricity sector, Minem’s proposal consists of updating its technical standards to eliminate the current exemption from the Primary Frequency Regulation (RPF), in force for generation plants with non-conventional renewable energy resources (solar, wind and tidal), with a power greater than 10 megawatts (MW). The purpose of this regulation is to stabilize the frequency of the electrical system when there are disturbances.
This update seeks to maintain the reliability and security of the public electricity service in favor of all users, replicating the best international practices in electrical systems with a high participation of renewable sources, such as those of Colombia, Texas, Quebec and Australia. Thus, all operators must comply with the standard with their respective adaptation plans, because the main objective is the reliability and security of the service that all Peruvians receive.
The proposed regulation of complementary services, pending approval, should be along these same lines. This regulation must guarantee compliance with an important principle established in the latest modification of the law to ensure the efficient development of the electricity sector: whoever generates the instabilities must assume the cost of managing them.
The electrical sector has been incorporating new electrical generation based on non-conventional renewable energies, and the measure proposed by Minem is appropriate and important, as it provides that the costs generated to adapt these sources to our energy matrix be assumed by the sources that generate them, and not by the entire system.
It is also essential that the availability of hydraulic and natural gas electricity generation be taken into account, two sources that also provide reliability and security to the system in a competitive and cost-efficient manner.
The southern energy node has been operating with diesel whenever it is required, which quintuples current electricity prices, as it is a fuel that we import and subsidize with the Fuel Price Stabilization Fund. We must bring natural gas to the energy node and create a network of regional gas pipelines replicating the electrical scheme implemented for the construction of transmission lines.
Likewise, several regulations and schemes must be updated to make our natural gas transportation and distribution system more robust at the national level, replicating the good practices that the electricity sector has and articulating them with the new provisions of the Public-Private Partnerships Law. The update of the technical standard for the electricity sector is a good sign related to the changes required by the system and is the work that Minem has been carrying out.
