The commercial operation of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market in Mindanao is expected to start in December, an official of Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines said.
IEMOP chief operating officer Robinson Descanzo said the start of operations of the Mindanao spot market was supposed to coincide with the implementation of the Market Management System for the three island grids by Dec. 26.
He said the linkup could be pushed back to 2021 if some requirements were not met.
“The market readiness committee chaired by PEMC [Philippine Electricity Market Corp.] recommended target date for the new market using the new MMS or the implementation of the enhanced WESM design which is Dec. 26 for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao,” Descanzo said.
He said the WESM, the trading floor of electricity, is operational in Luzon and the Visayas. He said the Mindanao platform has yet to complete the registration process for market participants.
“Mindanao is new to the market. Even registration completion is low. We hope we can complete all registration activities including participation in trial operations program. In case, we cannot compete that, effectively opening of the Mindanao market will be pushed back,” Descanzo said.
He said IEMOP, as operator of the WESM, asked the Energy Department to assist the participants in Mindanao to complete the requirements.
“We asked DOE to assist us, remind participants in Mindanao to complete their requirements although we also posted some policy issues DOE must address, most important [of which is] collection efficiency,” he said.
The Energy Department expressed hope to implement the commercial operations of the new MMS by January 2021.
WESM began commercial operations in Luzon in June 2006 and in the Visayas in December 2010. It was created under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 to reflect the actual cost of electricity and lower power prices through more efficient production and competition.