The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is positive that the suspended reserve market will restart regular commercial activities.
ERC Chairperson Monalisa C. Dimalanta said that there had been some setbacks in carrying out the reserve market, but the commission remained optimistic that with the submission of the requirements to ERC, resumption of operations would be possible, said Business World in its report.
Last month, ERC had instructed the cessation of the billing and settlement of the reserve market, and this would include the March billing period.
The suspension would only be lifted once ERC had concluded its evaluation of the price determination methods used by the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP), which was forecasted to occur in May.
Meanwhile, in an effort to find and fix problems and get the market back to normal as soon as possible, the commission directed IEMOP and the Philippine Electricity Market Corporation to turn in the software audit results by April 15.
Dimalanta added that once the requirements had been submitted and were deemed complete, the ERC could already finalize the evaluation of the program.
The chair also stressed that the reserve market should be in operation, hence, they are dedicated to figuring out the misalignments and ironing them out to line up with the policy and regulations, as this is crucial for realizing the renewable energy (RE) ambitions of the country.
In other developments, ERC is expecting to conclude the fourth regulatory reset of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) halfway through the year, with the completion of the fifth regulatory reset eyed to be at the end of this year.
