By Lenie Lectura - August 13,
2019
THE Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE)
may operate the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) if the current market
operator fails to perform its duties, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said
recently.
“Iemop [Independent Electricity
Market Operator of the Philippines Inc.] is a mere contractor. It is
the contractor of PEMC [Philippine Electric Market Corp.]. If Iemop will
fail in its performance, we can give it to others. We can give it to the PSE,”
said Cusi.
In 2017, PSE President Ramon Monzon
said that, “our long-term vision, our dream is that we will operate other
exchanges,” including the WESM. “We started talks with the DOE if we could
also operate that electricity exchange and basically, of course, the question
they ask is, what do we know about electricity? And my answer is, an exchange
is really a technology company.”
Iemop oversees transaction billing
and settlement procedures, and maintains and publishes a registry of WESM
trading participants. It also sets the dispatch schedule of all power
facilities, and monitor daily market trading activities.
For over a year now, Iemop has
operated the country’s trading floor for electricity. The Philippine
Electricity Market (PEM) board, which used to operate WESM, now remains the
spot market’s governing body.
Cusi said a review of the
performance of Iemop is ongoing. “We’re evaluating all the works. Kaya
tinitignan namin kung anong nangyari sa trabaho ng [So we’re looking at
what’s happening with the performace of the] Iemop,” said the energy chief.
In April, the DOE created a task
force to assess the performance of the WESM under the governance of an
independent market operator (IMO).
“The DOE deems it necessary to
assess the performance of the WESM under the current regime to ensure
transparency, competitiveness, protection of public interest and integrity of
the WESM,” stated DOE Circular 03-0009, which designated DOE Assistant
Secretary Leonido Pulido III as chairman of the task force.
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