Published
August 7, 2019, 10:00 PM By Myrna M. Velasco
With targets to remerge the
governing entity and the operating unit of the Wholesale Electricity Spot
Market (WESM), proposals are being resuscitated that the operations of the spot
market be shifted to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).
Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi
noted that based on their ongoing review, it is being established that the
legal standing of the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the
Philippines, Inc. (IEMOP) is just a “contractor” of WESM governing body Philippine
Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC).
And with that stature, he asserted
that IEMOP’s contract to operate the electricity spot market could be
terminated – and could still be given to other entity, like the PSE. “IEMOP has
a one year contract, then we evaluate,” he said.
Cusi further noted “IEMOP is just a
contractor, it is a contractor of PEMC, so if we establish that it fails on its
performance, then we can give that function to others, we can give that to the
PSE.”
It could be culled though that when
the idea of entrusting the WESM’s operations to the PSE was first brought up,
the operator of the country’s stock market had been questioned on its technical
capacity to run a more technically complex spot trading activity like in the
power sector.
As previously raised, trading in the
WESM involves physical capacities of power plants that have their own technical
configurations – and the PSE, it has been emphasized, may not have that level
of expertise to handle such kind of commodity trading yet.
Cusi moved for the setting up then
of IEMOP to serve as the independent operator of the spot market – separating
it from PEMC – the latter’s function of which should just have been supposedly
confined to market oversight as well as fortification and recommendation of
rule changes.
PEMC and IEMOP went to the extent of
signing an Operating Agreement (OA) when it comes to division of physical space
in their offices; human resources and other facets of their operations.
However, the energy secretary is now
sounding off “change of heart” from that direction for the country’s spot
market.
He said there is a required two-year
experience for an entity to be engaged as operator of the spot market, and
IEMOP may not necessarily had that when it was tapped as the WESM operating
entity.
“The surviving entity must be PEMC.
We are examining how IEMOP had executed its assigned function. The problem is
under the EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act), there is a need for two
years experience,” he reiterated.
No comments:
Post a Comment