By Danessa Rivera (The
Philippine Star) | Updated June 7, 2017 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - Philippine
Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) will start trial operations of the wholesale
electricity spot market (WESM) in Mindanao on June 26 to serve as a transition
period for energy stakeholders following the Department of Energy (DOE)
declaration of its launch this month.
PEMC, the operator of WESM, has
released the trial operation guidelines and test plan for Mindanao participants
comprised of generation companies, power distributors, bulk-users that are
directly connected to the transmission grid, and the National Grid Corporation
of the Philippines (NGCP) as the system operator and metering services
provider.
The trial operations program – which
shall commence in June 26 – contains a set of preparatory activities that aim
to familiarize all Mindanao participants in the implementation of the WESM via
the market systems and procedures to be deployed.
PEMC said Mindanao participants are
expected to be involved in the conduct of end-to-end testing of all interfaces
and systems that will involve simulations of all processes such as
registration, bid submission, pricing and scheduling and settlement.
At present, 29 participants
signified their intention to participate in the trial operations.
Prior to the launching of WESM
Mindanao, PEMC held a kick-off meeting last May 25 to discuss the market
systems to be deployed and on-site installation of user access interfaces was
also undertaken.
It also arranged hands-on trainings
to acquaint the participants of the user interfaces.
To ensure readiness of participants
prior to the commercial operations of the spot market, PEMC has lined up
several capacity-building activities parallel to the trial operations program.
PEMC president Melinda Ocampo said
operating an electricity market for the whole country will usher in
transparency and competition in the generation sector.
“We are looking forward to our
presence in Mindanao as we fully realize the vision of EPIRA in the creation of
a one WESM where benefits of efficiencies in electricity trading shall redound
to the benefit of Mindanao end-users through a transparent and reasonably-priced
electricity,” she said.
Established under the Electric Power
Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001, WESM serves as the country’s electricity
trading market. Currently, PEMC 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.
However, this 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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