Emergency protocols for WESM set

Manila Bulletin 
By Myrna M. Velasco 
Published: August 17, 2013 
Amendments to the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) Rules are being pushed so more defined protocols can be instituted in cases of emergencies and force majeure events that may disrupt the operations of the market.
The proposed policy changes will be for Chapter 6 of the WESM Rules, primarily intending to include “simulation of the business continuity plan and disaster recovery procedures of the Market Operator as a ground for market intervention.”
The draft amended rules had been circulated by WESM operator Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC) for comments and inputs of the affected stakeholders.
Business continuity shall refer to “the activity performed by the market operator to ensure that critical business functions will be available to the trading participants, system operator, metering services provider, ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission), DOE (Department of Energy) and other entities that must have access to those functions.”
Disaster recovery, on the other, is considered a subset of business continuity. It delves with “the process, policies and procedures that are related to preparing for recovery or continuation of technology infrastructure which are vital to the market operator after a natural or human-induced disaster.”
PEMC qualified that when market intervention happens, it may not be able to generate a schedule due to interruption in the operations of the market software.
 It explained that an intervention is a measure taken by the system operator (in this case the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines) “when the grid is in extreme state condition as established in the Grid Code arising from a threat to system security, force majeure or emergency.”
The draft rules amendments noted that “the market operator shall review and update the business continuity plan and disaster recovery procedures as may be necessary.”
 The trading participants and the system operator must also be apprised of the PEMC-designed simulations at least 30 days prior to enforcement.
 The proposed rules change also set out that “an evaluation of the simulation exercise shall be performed and deficiencies in the procedures and responses shall be identified and corrected.” (MMV)   source