Mindanao might see an implemented electricity spot market in the region by June 2017, a Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) official said.
PEMC president Melinda Ocampo said they are only waiting for orders from the Department of Energy (DOE) to begin operations of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in Mindanao.
“According to [DOE] Sec. [Alfonso] Cusi, it will be June 2017, but then we’re still awaiting for their promulgation,” Ocampo said.
“For the promulgation, they will have to go there. They will have to meet the stakeholders and participants, to inform them of the policies. PEMC will just follow the policies,” she added.
The promulgation is needed in order to brief stakeholders and other participants in the spot market.
While the DOE directive is still pending, PEMC said it will start undertaking measures for the speedy implementation of the spot market in the region. Its officials met with Mindanao’s system operator on December 22.
“We need to move faster because the target is June 2017. While waiting for their directives, on our part, we really need to comply with the target date. If that is the case, we’ll do whatever we can do, even without the directive,” Ocampo said.
DOE Chief Cusi previously ordered the speedy implementation of the WESM in Mindanao to secure reliable and stable energy supply in its power grid.
PEMC operates the power grids connecting Luzon and Visayas. However, Mindanao is not under the WESM and is not connected to the national grid.
Mindanao previously had the Interim Mindanao Electrcity Market (IMEM) that served as its trading floor for power.
It began commercial operations on November 26, 2013 but was suspended in February 2014 after a grid-wide power interruption.
This prevented power companies with excess generating capacity to offer their excess generated power to distribution utilities.
