Published July 28, 2017, 10:00 PM By Myrna M.
Velasco
Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi,
who also sits as board chairman of the Philippine Electricity Market
Corporation (PEMC), has installed new transition management team for the
Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) starting August 1 this year.
Following the acceptance of
resignation of PEMC President Melinda L. Ocampo, former Energy Regulatory Board
Chairman Oscar Ala will take over as President and Chief Executive Officer at
PEMC, the electricity spot market operator.
The transition team will last for
seven months or until March next year, while the spot market is being advanced
into its foray into full private sector-led operation via the appointment of an
independent market operator (IMO), a long-delayed development awaited for the
WESM’s phase to maturity.
Ala will be joined in the transition
team by former Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Commissioner Rauf Tan to
handle policy reviews; former ERC Executive Director Francis Saturnino Juan as
Spokesman and to take charge of operational matters; Engineer Jose Mari T.
Bigornia for Operations and Technical Matters; and Jose Layug for Human
Resources and Policy Matters.
Most of the names in the transition
team are “old timers” in the industry, giving level of comfort to industry
players then that the market operations would not turn wobbly while traversing
operational changes.
The planned transition team has long
been spinning as industry talks, but it took a bit of time for Cusi to advance
this proposition.
WESM is currently undergoing several
changes on its operations, including its shift into new market management
system (NMMS) on the trading platform and the recent launch of the WESM in
Mindanao grid.
Additionally, players in the power
industry have turned eagle-eyed on how market fees are being spent as these
have been thrown into the controversy hounding some officials of the ERC, the
electricity sector’s regulating agency.
Beyond this temporary management,
Cusi has also been fleshing out changes in the PEM Board, which he hinted to
the media will be installed soon, albeit he has not given any timeframe yet.
It was gathered that the four seats
for power generation companies (GenCos) had been hotly contested, although
initially, it was indicated that one will already be allotted for the
organization of the independent power producers.
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