By Danessa Rivera (The
Philippine Star) | Updated December 28, 2016 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine
Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) is ready to meet the June 2017 target to
implement an electricity spot market in Mindanao, its top official said.
The company is just awaiting the
directive from the Department of Energy to start operating the Wholesale
Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in Mindanao, PEMC president Melinda Ocampo said.
“According to Sec. Cusi, it will be
June 2017, but then we’re still awaiting for their promulgation,”Ocampo said.
DOE’s promulgation is necessary to
brief stakeholders and participants of the spot market.
“For the promulgation, they will
have to go there. They will have to meet the stakeholders and participants, to
inform them of the policies. PEMC will just follow the policies,” Ocampo said.
But while waiting for the DOE
directive, PEMC will start undertaking measures for the speedy implementation of
WESM Mindanao.
PEMC officials have met with
Mindanao’s system operator last Dec. 22.
“We need to move faster because the
target is June 2017. While waiting for their directives, on our part, we really
need to comply with the target date. If that is the case, we’ll do whatever we
can do, even without the directive,” Ocampo said.
Last November, the Energy chief
ordered the faster implementation of WESM Mindanao to ensure a reliable and
stable supply in the region’s power grid.
Established under the Electric Power
Industry Reform Act of 2001, WESM serves as the country’s electricity trading
market.
PEMC currently operates the
country’s electricity spot market in Luzon and Visayas.
Mindanao was not part of the WESM
and its power grid is not connected to the national grid.
Instead, an Interim Mindanao
Electricity Market (IMEM) was set up on Sept. 26, 2013 and started full
commercial operations on Nov. 26, 2013 as a trading floor for electricity in
the region, similar to WESM in Luzon and Visayas.
IMEM was suspended in February 2014
following a grid-wide power interruption in the region, preventing power
companies with excess generating capacity to offer their output to distribution
utilities (DUs).
Apart from instances of power
interruptions during its operations, PEMC also faced the difficulty of getting
payments from DUs for the capacity bought in IMEM.
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