The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) can take over the operations of Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) if the market operator fails to do its job.
This was according to the Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Alfonso Cusi.
“Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines Inc. (Iemop) is a mere contractor. It is the contractor of PEMC (Philippine Electric Market Corp.). If Iemop will fail in its performance, we can give it to others. We can give it to the PSE,” Cusi was quoted in a BusinessMirror report.
“We started talks with the DOE if we could also operate that electricity exchange and basically, of course, the question they ask is, what do we know about electricity? And my answer is, an exchange is really a technology company,” PSE President Ramon Monzon told BusinessMirror reporters.
Iemop is responsible for the transaction billing and settlement procedures, as well as the maintenance and publication of registry of WESM trading participants.
It also monitors the daily market trading activities, and sets the dispatch schedule of all power facilities.
“We’re evaluating all the works. Kaya tinitignan namin kung anong nangyari sa trabaho ng Iemop [So we’re looking at what’s happening with the performace of the],” Cusi commented on Iemop’s performance.
DOE created a task force to review the performance of the WESM under the management of an independent market operator (IMO) in April.
Leading the task force is DOE Assistant Secretary Leonido Pulido III.
“The DOE deems it necessary to assess the performance of the WESM under the current regime to ensure transparency, competitiveness, protection of public interest and integrity of the WESM,” stated DOE Circular 03-0009.
