Meralco backs permanent secondary price cap at WESM

THE country’s largest distribution utility supports the permanent imposition of a secondary price cap on power supply traded on the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) to better protect consumers from price spikes.

In a position paper submitted to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), Ivanna dela Peña, first vice president and head of Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) regulatory management office, said imposing a secondary price cap is a “more reasonable measure” than requiring distribution utilities (DU) to source all of their energy requirements through bilateral contracts.