Published
By Myrna M. Velasco
With the government
finally relinquishing chairmanship to the private sector, governing body
Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC) and Independent Electricity
Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) are now fleshing out the details of
the Operating Agreement (OA) for the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market’s (WESM)
fully private system of operations.
According to IEMOP
President Francis Saturnino C. Juan, the specific concerns to be tackled in the
OA are those on: Staffing of both companies; sharing and/or physical
delineation of work spaces; budget allocation; as well as assumption of loan
payments and liabilities, among others.
The PEMC chairmanship in
particular was formally turned over by Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi to
private sector-elected Chairman Noel V. Aboboto of TeaM Energy Philippines last
July 31 (Tuesday).
On the OA between PEMC
and IEMOP, Juan noted this is set to be concretized within this month – and due
for implementation starting September 26 this year.
“Right now we’ve
already subjected the initial draft to market participants’ discussion and it
was also presented during our last market participants’ meeting and the public
was given the opportunity to submit their comments,” he said.
Juan noted that
industry inputs and clarifications have been raised to them, hence, the next
step for both entities will be “to sit down with the Department of Energy as
well as with the Energy Regulatory Commission because some of these requests
for clarification might require some guidance from our regulator and also from
the DOE.”
These particular
issues, he said, deal with those on the central registration body (CRB) for
participants in the retail electricity market; as well as the envisioned
registrar for the Renewable Energy (RE) market.
He said it remains a
question for now whether those are functions to be performed by the IEMOP or
PEMC – considering the previous delegation institutionalized then by DOE and
ERC Rules.
On staffing for both
companies, Juan indicated that IEMOP will beef up its human resources with 147
people; while PEMC will have 67 on its team.
“We would need to
already process and finalize our transfer of employees from PEMC to IEMOP and
those employees that will remain with PEMC, they’d already have to execute the
contracts of employment,” the IEMOP chief executive said.
He further explained
“for us to do that, we would also need to separate them from PEMC and notify
the Department of Labor and Employment, so we’re allotting 30 days for that.”
In terms of settlement
of liabilities and collection of market fees, Juan emphasized that such will
likely be a function devolved to IEMOP – but prior to concretizing that system,
they will also be securing regulatory nod.
“On liabilities
including that of the existing loan with PSALM (Power Sector Assets and
Liabilities Management Corporation) that was used to purchase the existing
system that we’re using for PEMC… since the idea is for the market operator to
assume the asset, it will also take over the liabilities,” Juan stressed.
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